CHAUTAUQUA EDITION 



HISTOEIES OF 

CYRUS THE GREAT 



AND 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 



BY 

JACOB ABBOTT 



With Revisions and an Appendix 
By LYMAN ABBOTT 



/(v>' c- 



\Mc. U^^^^"^^- 



NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1880 






'A 



Copyright, 1880, by Benjainiin Vaughan Abbott, Austin 
Abbott, Lyman Abbott, and Edward Abbott. 






GENERAL PREFACE 



CHAUTAUQUA EDITION*. 



For any comprehensive knowledge of his- 
tory some acquaintance with the lives of Cy- 
rus and Alexander is essential ; since the con- 
quest of Cyrus has been well characterized as 
the starting-point of European life, and the 
conquest of Alexander prepared the way for 
that spread of Grecian literature and philos- 
ophy w^hich were themselves preparations for 
the spread of Christianity. Moreover, as indi- 
viduals, Cyrus stands out clearly as the repre- 
sentative of the East, Alexander of the West. 

In preparing this edition of rny father's 
volumes, at the request of Dr. Yincent, regard 
has been had to making a cheap edition for 
popular use : it is, therefore, printed from the 
original plates; such errors as were discover- 
able in them have been corrected, but these 
were very few in number. 



vi General Preface. 

The additional matter, gathered from a wide 
range of modern authorities — the result of re- 
searches in the East since the original histo- 
ries were written — are incorporated in brief 
notes in an Appendix, where also the student 
will find references to English authorities easi- 
ly accessible in all of the larger libraries, and 
many of them to be found in any good school 
or town library. In using the volume, the 
reader is recommended, after finishing each 
chapter, to turn to the Appendix, read the 
notes there, and perhaps connect them with 
the chapter by pencil memoranda at the ap- 
propriate page, for future convenience. 

L. A. 

COBNWALL-ON-IIUDSON, N. Y. 
















iMii 







I 










HISTORY 



CYRUS THE GREAT. 



BY JACOB ABBOTT. 



i©Ct5 SSttfitabtngg. 



NEW YORK: 

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FE AN KLIN SQUARE. 
1880. 



9> 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 
of New York. 



Copyright, 1878, by Jacob Abbott. 



PREFACE. 



One special object which the author of this 
series has had in view, in the plan and method 
which he has followed in the prej^aration of the 
successive volumes, has been to adapt them to 
the purposes of text-books in schools. The 
study of a general compend of history, such as 
is frequently used as a text-book, is highly use- 
ful, if it comes in at the right stage of educa- 
tion, when the mind is sujfficiently matured, and 
has acquired sufficient preliminary knowledge 
to understand and appreciate so condensed a 
generalization as a summary of the whole his- 
tory of a nation contained in an ordinary volume 
must necessarily be. Without this degree of 
maturity of mind, and this preparation, the 
study of such a work will be, as it too frequent- 
ly is, a mere mechanical committing to mem- 
ory of names, and dates, and phrases, which 
awaken no interest, communicate no ideas, and 
impart no useful knowledge to the mind. 

A class of ordinary pupils, who have not yet 



VI JfREFACE 



Prej 



become much acquainted with history, would, 
accordingly, be more benefited by having their 
attention concentrated, at first, on detached 
and separate topics, such as those which form 
the subjects, respectively, of these volumes. 
By studying thus fully the history of individual 
monarchs, or the narratives of single events, 
they can go more fully into detail ; they con- 
ceive of the transactions described as realities ; 
their reflecting and reasoning powers are occu- 
pied on what they read; they take notice of 
the motives of conduct, of the gradual develop- 
ment of character, the good or ill desert of ac- 
tions, and of the connection of causes and con- 
sequences, both in respect to the influence of 
wisdom and virtue on the one hand, and, on 
the other, of folly and crime. In a word, their 
minds and hearts are occupied instead of mere- 
ly their memories. They reason, they sympa- 
thize, they pity, they approve, and they con- 
demn. They enjoy the real and true pleasure 
which constitutes the charm of historical study 
for minds that are mature; and they acquire 
a taste for truth instead of fiction, which will 
tend to direct their reading into proper channels 
in all future years. 

The use of these works, therefore, as text- 
books in classes, has been kept continually in 



Preface. vii 

mind in the preparation of them. The running 
index on the tops of the pages is intended to 
serve instead of questions. These captions can 
be used in their present form as topics^ in re- 
spect to which, when announced in the class, 
the pupils are to repeat substantially what is 
said on the page ; or, on the other hand, ques- 
tions in form, if that mode is preferred, can be 
readily framed from them by the teacher. In 
all the volumes, a very regular system of divi- 
sion into chapters is observed, which will great- 
ly facilitate the assignment of lessons. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

I. HERODOTUS AND XENOPHON 13 

II. THE BIRTH OF CYRUS 37 

III. THE VISIT TO MEDIA 68 

IV. CROaSUS 101 

V. ACCESSION OF CYRUS TO THE THRONE .... 124 

VI. THE ORACLES 144 

VII. THE CONQUEST OF LYDIA 164 

VIII. THE CONQUEST OF BABYLON 187 

IX. THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS 207 

X. THE STORY OF PANTHEA 226 

XI. CONVERSATIONS ». 253 

XII. THE DEATH OF CVRUS 270 



ENGRAVINGS. 



Page 

MAP OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE FrOPJisjpiece, 

THE EXPOSURE OF THE INFANT 48 

CYRUS'S HUNTING 90 

THE SECRET CORRESPONDENCE 132 

THE SIEGE OF SARDIS * 179 

RAISING JEREMIAH FROM THE DUNGEON 219 

THE WAR-CHARIOT OF ABRADATES . . . . • 242 



CYRUS THE GREAT. 



Chapter I. 
Herodotus and Xenophon. 

The Persian monarchy. Singular principle of human nature 

/^YRUS was the founder of the ancient Per- 
^^ sian empire — a monarchy, perhaps, the 
most wealthy and magnificent which the world 
has ever seen. Of that strange and incompre* 
hensible principle of human nature, under the 
influence of which vast masses of men, notwith- 
standing the universal instinct of aversion to 
control, combine, under certain circumstances, 
by millions and millions, to maintain, for many 
successive centuries, the representatives of some 
one great family in a condition of exalted, and 
absolute, and utterly irresponsible ascendency 
over themselves, while they toil for them, watch 
over them, submit to endless and most humil- 
iating privations in their behalf, and commit, 
if commanded to do so, the most inexcusable 

and atrocious crimes to sustain the demigods 

2 



14 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 550. 

Grandeur of the Persian monarchy. Its origin 

they have thus made m their lofty estate, wa 
have, in the case of this Persian monarchyj one 
of the most extraordinary exhibitions. 

The Persian monarchy appears, in fact, even 
as we look back upon it from this remote dis- 
tance both of space and of time, as a very vast 
wave of human power and grandeur. It swelled 
up among the populations of Asia, between the 
Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, about five 
hundred years before Christ, and rolled on in 
undiminished magnitude and glory for many 
centuries. It bore upon its crest the royal line 
of Astyages and his successors. Cyrus was, 
however, the first of the princes whom it held 
up conspicuously to the admiration of the world, 
and he rode so gracefully and gallantly on the 
lofty crest that mankind have given him the 
credit of raising and sustaining the magnificent 
billow on which he was borne. How far we 
are to consider him as founding the monarchy, 
or the monarchy as raising and illustrating him, 
will appear more fully in the course of this nar- 
rative. 

Cotemporaneous with this Persian monar- 
chy in the East, there flourished in the West 
the small but very efficient and vigorous re- 
publics of Greece, The Greeks had a written 



B.C.550.] Herodotus and Xenophon 15 

The republics of Greece. Written characters Greek and Persian 

character for their language which could be 
easily and rapidly executed, while the ordinary 
language of the Persians was scarcely written 
at all. There was, it is true, in this latter na- 
tion, a certain learned character, w^hich was 
used by the priests for their mystic records, 
and also for certain sacred books which consti- 
tuted the only national archives. It was, how- 
ever, only slowly and with difficulty that this 
character could be penned, and, when penned, 
it was unintelligible to the great mass of the 
population. For this reason, among others, 
the Greeks wrote narratives of the great events 
which occurred in their day, which narratives 
they so embellished and adorned by the pictur- 
esque lights and shades in which their genius 
enabled them to present the scenes and charac- 
ters described as to make them universally ad- 
mired, while the surrounding nations produced 
nothing but formal governmental records, not 
worth to the community at large the toil and la- 
bor necessary to decipher them and make them 
intelligible. Thus the Greek writers became 
the historians; not only of their ow^n republics, 
but also of all the nations around them ; and 
with such admirable genius and power did they 
fulfill this function, that, while the records of all 



16 Cyrus THE Great. [B.C. 550. 

Preservation of the Greek language. Herodotus and Xenophon 

other nations cotemporary with them have 
been ahnost entirely neglected and forgotten, 
the language of the Greeks has been preserved 
among mankind, with infinite labor and toil, by 
successive generations of scholars, in every civ- 
ilized nation, for two thousand years, solely in 
order that men may continue to read these tales. 

Two Greek historians have given us a nar- 
rative of the events connected with the life of 
Cyrus — Herodotus and Xenophon. These wri- 
ters disagree very materially in the statements 
which they make, and modern readers are di- 
vided in opinion on the question which to believe. 
Tn order to present this question fairly to the 
minds of our readers, we must commence this 
volume with some account of these two au« 
thorities, whose guidance, conflicting as it is, 
furnishes all the light which we have to follow. 

Herodotus was a philosopher and scholar 
Xenophon was a great general. The one spent 
his life in solitary study, or in visiting various 
countries in the pursuit of knowledge ; the oth* 
er distinguished himself in the command of ar« 
mies, and in distant military expeditions, which 
he conducted with great energy and skill. 
They were both, by birth, men of wealth and 
high station, so that they occupied, from the 



B.C;.484.] Herodotus and Xenophon. 17 

Birth of Herodotus. Education of the Greeks. 

beginning, conspicuous positions in society ; and 
as they were both energetic and enterprising in 
character, they were led, each, to a very ro- 
mantic and adventurous career, the one in his 
travels, the other in his campaigns, so that their 
personal history and their exploits attracted 
great attention even while they lived. 

Herodotus was born in the year 484 before 
Christ, which was about fifty years after the 
death of the Cyrus whose history forms the sub- 
ject of this volume. He was born in the Gre- 
cian state of Caria, in Asia Minor, and in the 
city of Halicarnassus. Caria, as may be seen 
from the jnap at the commencement of this vol- 
ume, was in the southwestern part of Asia Mi- 
nor, near the shores of the ^Egean Sea. He- 
rodotus became a student at a very early age. 
It was the custom in Greece, at that time, to 
give to young men of his rank a good intellect- 
ual education. In other nations, the training 
of the young men, in wealthy and powerful fam- 
ilies, was confined almost exclusively to the use 
of arms, to horsemanship, to athletic feats, and 
other such accomplishments as would give them 
a manly and graceful personal bearing, and en- 
able them to excel in the various friendly con- 
tests of the public games, as well as prepare 
B 



18 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 450 

How public affairs were discussed. Literary entertainments. 

them to maintain their ground against their 
enemies in personal combats on the field of 
battle. The Greeks, without neglecting these 
things, taught their young men also to read and 
to write, explained to them the structure and 
the philosophy of language, and trained them 
to the study of the poets, the orators, and the 
historians which their country had produced. 
Thus a general taste for intellectual pursuits 
and pleasures was diffused throughout the com- 
munity. Public affairs were discussed, before 
large audiences assembled for the purpose, by 
orators who felt a great pride and pleasure in 
the exercise of the power which they had ac- 
quired of persuading, convincing, or exciting 
the mighty masses that listened to them ; and 
at the great public celebrations which were cus- 
tomary in those days, in addition to the wres- 
tlings, the races, the games, and the military 
spectacles, there were certain literary entertain^ 
ments provided, which constituted an essential 
part of the public pleasures. Tragedies were 
acted, poems recited, odes and lyrics sung, and 
narratives of martial enterprises and exploits, 
and geographical and historical descriptions of 
neighboring nations, were read to vast throngs 
of listeners, who, having been accustomed from 



B.C. 450.] Herodotus and Xenophon. 19 

Herodotus's early love of knowledge. Intercourse of nations. 

infancy to witness such performances, and to 
hear them applauded, had learned to appreciate 
and enjoy them. Of course, these literary ex- 
hibitions would make impressions, more or less 
strong, on different minds, as the mental tem- 
peraments and characters of individuals varied. 
They seem to have exerted a very powerful in- 
fluence on the mind of Herodotus in his early 
years. He was inspired, when very young, 
with a great zeal and ardor for the attainment 
of knowledge ; and as he advanced toward ma- 
turity, he began to be ambitious of making 
new discoveries, with a view of communicating 
to his countrymen, in these great public assem- 
blies, what he should thus acquire. Accord- 
ingly, as soon as he arrived at a suitable age, 
he resolved to set out upon a tour into foreign 
countries, and to bring back a report of what 
he should see and hear. 

The intercourse of nations was, in those days, 
mainly carried on over the waters of the Med- 
iterranean Sea ; and in times of peace, almost 
the only mode of communication was by the 
ships and the caravans of the merchants who 
traded from country to country, both by sea 
and on the land. In fact, the knowledge which 
one country possessed of the geography and the 



20 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 450. 

Military expeditions. Plan of Herodotus's tour. 

manners and customs of another, was almost 
wholly confined to the reports which these mer- 
chants circulated. When military expeditions 
invaded a territory, the commanders, or the 
writers who accompanied them, often wrote 
descriptions of the scenes which they witnessed 
in their campaigns, and described briefly the 
countries through which they passed. These 
cases were, however, comparatively rare ; and 
yet, when they occurred, they furnished ac 
counts better authenticated, and more to be re- 
lied upon, and expressed, moreover, in a more 
systematic and regular form, than the reports 
of the merchants, though the information which 
was derived from both these sources combined 
was very insufficient, and tended to excite more 
curiosity than it gratified. Herodotus, there- 
fore, conceived that, in thoroughly exploring the 
countries on the shores of the Mediterranean 
and in the interior of Asia, examining their ge- 
ographical position, inquiring into their history, 
their institutions, their manners, customs, and 
laws, and writing the results for the entertain- 
ment and instruction of his countrymen, he had 
an ample field before him for the exercise of all 
his powers. 

He vvcnt first to Egypt. Egypt had been, 



B.C. 450.] Herodotus and Xenophon. 21 

Herodotus visits Egypt. Libya and the Straits o'' Gibraltar. 

until that time, closely shut up from the rest 
of mankind by the jealousy and \Yatchfulness 
of the government. But now, on account of 
some recent political changes, which will bo 
hereafter more particularly alluded to, the way 
was opened for travelers from other countries 
to come in. Herodotus was the first to avail 
himself of this opportunity. He spent some 
time in the country, and made himself minutely 
acquainted with its history, its antiquities, its 
political and social condition at the time of his 
visit, and with all the other points in respect 
to which he supposed that his countrymen 
would wish to be informed. He took copious 
notes of all that he saw. From Egypt he 
went eastward into Libya, and thence he trav- 
eled slowly along the w^hole southern shore of 
the Mediterranean Sea as far as to the Straits of 
Gibraltar, noting, with great care, every thing 
which presented itself to his own personal ob- 
servation, and availing himself of every possi- 
ble source of information in respect to all other 
points of importance for the object which he 
had in view. 

The Straits of Gibraltar were the ends of the 
earth toward the westward in those ancient 
days, and our traveler accordingly, after reach- 



22 Cyrus the G r e a t. [B.C. 450 

Route of Herodotus in Asia. His return to Greece 

ing them, returned again to the eastward. He 
visited Tyre, and the cities of Phoenicia, on the 
eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and 
thence went still further eastward to Assyria 
and Babylon. It was here that he obtained 
the materials for what he has written in respect 
to the Modes and Persians, and to the history 
of Cyrus. After spending some time in these 
countries, he went on by land still further to 
the eastward, into the heart of Asia. The 
country of Scythia was considered as at ^'the 
end of the earth" in this direction. Herodotus 
penetrated for some distance into the almost 
trackless wilds of this remote land, until he 
found that he had gone as far from the great 
center of light and power on the shores of the 
^Egean Sea as he could expect the curiosity 
of his countrymen to follow him. He passed 
thence round toward the north, and came down 
through the countries north of the Danube into 
Greece, by way of the Epirus and Macedon. 
To make such a journey as this was, in fact, 
in those days, almost to explore the whole known 
world. 

It ought, however, here to be stated, that 
many modern scholars, who have examined, 
with great care, the accounts which Herodotua 



B.C. 450.] Herodotus and Xenophon. 23 

Doubts as to the extent of Herodotus's tour. His history *' adorned.'* 

has given of what he saw and heard in his 
wanderings, doubt very seriously whether his 
journeys were really as extended as he pre- 
tends. As his object was to read what he wa^ 
intending to write at great public assemblies 
in Greece, he was, of course, under every pos- 
sible inducement to make his narrative as in- 
teresting as possible, and not to detract at all 
from whatever there might be extraordinary 
either in the extent of his wanderings or in 
the wonderfulness of the objects and scenes 
which he saw, or in the romantic nature of the 
adventures which he met with in his protracted 
tour. Cicero, in lauding him as a writer, says 
that he was the first who evinced the power to 
adorn a historical narrative. Between adorn- 
ing and embellishing^ the line is not to be very 
distinctly marked ; and Herodotus has often 
been accused of having drawn more from his 
fancy than from any other source, in respect to 
a large portion of what he relates and describes. 
Some do not believe that he ever even entered 
half the countries which he professes to have 
thoroughly explored, while others find, in the 
minuteness of his specifications, something like 
conclusive proof that he related only what he 
actually saw. In a word, the question of his 



24 Cyrus the Great. 

Herodotus's credibility questioned. Sources of bias 

credibility has been discussed by successive 
generations of scholars ever since his day, and 
strong parties have been formed who kave gone 
to extremes in the opinions they have taken ; 
so that, while some confer upon him the title 
of the father of history^ others say it w^ould be 
more in accordance with his merits to call him 
the father of lies. In controversies like this, 
and, in fact, in all controversies, it is more 
agreeable to the mass of mankind to take sides 
strongly with one party or the other, and either 
to believe or disbelieve one or the other fully 
and cordially. There is a class of minds, how- 
ever, more calm and better balanced than the 
rest, who can deny themselves this pleasure, 
and who see that often, in the most bitter and 
decided controversies, the truth lies between. 
By this class of minds it has been generally 
supposed that the narratives of Herodotus are 
substantially true, though in many cases highly 
colored and embellished, or, as Cicero called it, 
adorned, as, in fact, they inevitably must have 
been under the circumstances in which they 
were written. 

We can not follow minutely 'the circum- 
stances of the subsequent life of Herodotus. 
He became involved in some political disturb- 



Herodotus and XenophoNc 23 

Saraos. Patmos. The Olympiads. 

ances and difficulties in his native state aftei 
his return, in consequence of which he retired, 
partly a fugitive and partly an exile, to the isl- 
and of Samos, which is at a little distance from 
Caria, and not far from the shore. Here he 
lived for some time in seclusion, occupied in 
writing out his history. He divided it into nine 
books, to which, respectively, the names of the 
nine Muses were afterward given, to designate 
them. The island of Samos, where this great 
literary work was performed, is very near to 
Patmos, where, a few hundred years later, the 
Evangelist John, in a similar retirement, and 
in the use of the same language and character, 
wrote the Book of Revelation. 

When a few of the first books of his history 
were completed, Herodotus went with the man- 
uscript to Olympia, at the great celebration of 
the 81st Olympiad. The Olympiads were pe- 
riods recurring at intervals of about four years. 
By means of them the Greeks reckoned their 
time. The Olympiads were celebrated as they 
occurred, with games, shows, spectacles, and 
parades, which were conducted on so magnifi- 
cent a scale that vast crowds were accustomed 
to assemble from every part of Greece to wit- 
ness and join in them. They were held at 



26 Cyrus the Great. 

Herodotus at Olympia. His history received with applause. 

Olympia, a city on the western side of Greece. 
Nothing now remains to mark the spot but 
some acres of confused and unintelligible ruins, 

The personal fame of Herodotus and of his 
travels had preceded him, and when he arrived 
at Olympia he found the curiosity and eager- 
ness of the people to listen to his narratives ex- 
treme. He read copious extracts from his ac- 
counts, so far as he had written them, to the 
vast assemblies which convened to hear him, 
and they were received with unbounded ap- 
plause ; and inasmuch as these assemblies com- 
prised nearly all the statesmen, the generals, 
the philosophers, and the scholars of Greece, 
applause expressed by them became at once 
universal renown. Herodotus was greatly grat- 
ified at the interest which his countrymen took 
in his narratives, and he determined thenceforth 
to devote his time assiduously to the continu- 
ation and completion of his work. 

It was twelve years, however, before his plan 
was finally accomplished. He then repaired to 
Athens, at the time of a grand festive celebra- 
tion which was held in that city, and there he 
appeared in public again, and read extended 
portions of the additional books that he had writ • 
ten. The admiration and applause which his 



B.C. 450.] Herodotus and Xenophon. 27 

Herodotus at Athens. Ills literary fame 

work now elicited was even greater than before. 
In deciding upon the passages to be read, He- 
rodotus selected such as would be most likely to 
excite the interest of his Grecian hearers, and 
many of them were glc wing accounts of Gre- 
cian exploits in former wars which had been 
waged in the countries which he had visited. 
To expect that, under such circumstances, He- 
rodotus should have made his history wholly 
impartial, would be to suppose the historian not 
human. 

The Athenians were greatly pleased with the 
narratives which Herodotus thug read to them 
of their own and of their ancestors' exploits. 
They considered him a national benefactor for 
having made such a record of their deeds, and, 
in addition to the unbounded applause which 
they bestowed upon him, they made him a pub- 
lic grant of a large sum of money. During the 
remainder of his life Herodotus continued to 
enjoy the high degree of literary renown which 
his writings had acquired for him — a renown 
which has since been extended and increased, 
rather than diminished, by the lapse of time. 

As for Xenophon, the other great historian 
of Cyrus, it has already been said that he was 
a militarv commander, and his life was accord- 



28 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 401. 

Birth of Xenophon. Cyrus the Younger, 

ingly spent in a very different manner from 
that of his great competitor for historic fame. 
He was born at Athens, about thirty years after 
the birth of HerodotuSj so that he was but a 
child while Herodotus was in the midst of his 
career. When he was about twenty-two years 
of age, he joined a celebrated military expedi- 
tion which was formed in Greece, for the pur- 
pose of proceeding to Asia Minor to enter into 
the service of the governor of that country. 
The name of this governor was Cyrus ; and to 
distinguish him from Cyrus the Great, whose 
history is to form the subject of this volume, 
and who lived about one hundred and fifty years 
before him, he is commonly called Cyrus the 
V^ounger. 

This expedition was headed by a Grecian 
general named Clearchus. The soldiers and 
the subordinate officers of the expedition did 
not know for what special service it was de- 
signed, as Cyrus had a treasonable and guilty 
object in view, and he kept it accordingly con- 
cealed, even from the agents w^ho were to aid 
him in the execution of it. His plan was to 
make war upon and dethrone his brother Ar- 
taxerxes, then king of Persia, and consequently 
his sovereign. Cyrus; was a very young man, 



B.C. 401. j Herodotus and Xenophon. 29 

Ambition of Cyrus. He attempts to assassinate his brother. 

but he was a man of a very energetic and ac- 
complished character, and of unbounded ambi- 
tion. When his father died, it was arranged 
that Artaxerxes, the older son, should succeed 
him. Cyrus was extremely unwilling to sub- 
mit to this supremacy of his brother. His moth- 
er was an artful and unprincipled woman, and 
Cyrus, being the youngest of her children, was 
her favorite. She encouraged him in his am- 
bitious designs ; and so desperate was Cyrus 
himself in his determination to accomplish 
them, that it is said he attempted to assassi- 
nate his brother on the day of his coronation. 
His attempt was discovered, and it failed. His 
brother, however, instead of punishing him for 
the treason, had the generosity to pardon him, 
and sent him to his government in Asia Minor. 
Cyrus immediately turned all his thoughts to 
the plan of raising an army and making war 
upon his brother, in order to gain forcible pos- 
gession of his throne. That he might have a 
plausible pretext for making the necessary mili- 
tary preparations, he pretended to have a quarrej 
with one of his neighbors, and wrpte, hypocrit- 
ically, many letters to the king, affecting so- 
licitude for his safety, and asking aid. The 
king was thus deceived, and made no prepara- 
3 



30 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 401 

Rebellion of Cyrus. The Greek anxiiiariea 

tions to resist the force which Cyrus was as- 
sembling, not having the remotest suspicion 
that its destiny was Babylon. 

The auxiliary army which came from Greece, 
to enter into Cyrus's service under these cir- 
cumstances, consisted of about thirteen thou- 
sand men. He had, it was said, a hundred 
thousand men besides ; but so celebrated were 
the Greeks in those days for their courage, 
their discipline, their powers of endurance, and 
their indomitable tenacity and energy, that Cy- 
rus very properly considered this corps as the 
flower of his army. Xenophon was one of the 
younger Grecian generals. The army crossed 
the Hellespont, and entered Asia Minor, and, 
passing across the country, reached at last the 
famous pass of Cilicia, in the southwestern part 
of the country — a narrow defile between the 
mountains and the sea, which opens the only 
passage in that quarter toward the Persian re- 
gions beyond. Here the suspicions which the 
Greeks had been for some time inclined to feel, 
that they were going to make war upon the 
Persian monarch himself, were confirmed, and 
they refused to proceed. Their unwillingness, 
however, did not arise from any compunctions 
of conscience about the guilt of treason, or the 



B.C. 401.J Herodotus and Xenophon. 31 

^taxerxes assembles his army. The battla 

wickedness of helping an ungrateful and un- 
principled wretch, whose forfeited life had once 
been given to him by his brother, in making 
war upon and destroying his benefactor. Sol- 
diers have never, in any age of the world, any 
thing to do with compunctions of conscience 
in respect to the work which their command- 
ers give them to perform. The Greeks were 
perfectly willing to serve in this or in any other 
undertaking; but, since it was rebellion and 
treason that was asked of them, they consider- 
ed it as specially hazardous, and so they con- 
cluded that they were entitled to extra pay. 
Cyrus made no objection to this demand; an 
arrangement was made accordingly, and the 
army w^ent on. 

Artaxerxes assembled suddenly the whole 
force of his empire on the plains of Babylon— 
an immense army, consisting, it is said, of over 
a million of men. Such vast forces occupy, 
necessarily, a wide extent of country, even 
when drawn up in battle array. So great, in 
fact, was the extent occupied in this case, that 
the Greeks, who conquered all tliat part of the 
king's forces which was directly opposed to 
them, supposed^ when night came, at the close 
of the day of battle, that Cyrus had been every 



32 Cyrus the Great. [B.C;.401. 

Cyrus slain. Murder of the Greek generala 

where victorious ; and they were only unde» 
ceived when, the next day, messengers came 
from the Persian camp to inform them that Cy • 
rus's whole force, excepting themselves, was 
defeated and dispersed, and that Cyrus himself 
was slain, and to summon them to surrender at 
once and unconditionally to the conquerors. 

The Greeks refused to surrender. They form- 
ad themselves immediately into a compact and 
solid body, fortified themselves as well as they 
could in their position, and prepared for a desper- 
ate defense. There were about ten thousand of 
them left, and the Persians seem to have consid- 
ered them too formidable to be attacked. The 
Persians entered into negotiations with them, of- 
fering them certain terms on which they would 
be allowed to return peaceably into Greece. 
These negotiations were protracted from day to 
day for two or three weeks, the Persians treach- 
erously using toward them a friendly tone, and 
evincing a disposition to treat them in a liberal 
and generous manner. This threw the Greeks 
off their guard, and finally the Persians contriv- 
ed to get Clearchus and the leading Greek gen- 
erals into their power at a feast, and then they 
seized and murdered them, or, as they would 
perhaps term it, executed them as rebels and 



B.C.40S.J Herodotus and Xejnophon. 33 

Critical situation of the Greeks. Xenophon's proposal 

traitors. When this was reported in the Gre- 
cian camp, the whole army was thrown at first 
into the utmost consternation. They found 
themselves two thousand miles from home, in 
the heart of a hostile country, with an enemy 
nearly a hundred times their own number close 
upon them, while they themselves were with- 
out provisions, without horses, without money ; 
and there were deep rivers, and rugged mount- 
ains, and every other possible physical obstacle 
to be surmounted, before they could reach their 
own frontiers. If they surrendered to their en- 
emies, a hopeless and most miserable slavery 
was their inevitable doom. 

Under these circumstances, Xenophon, ac- 
cording to his own storv, called together the 
surviving officers in the camp, urged them not 
to despair, and recommended that immediate 
measures should be taken for commencing a 
march toward Greece. He proposed that they 
should elect commanders to take the places of 
those who had been killed, and that, under their 
new organization, they should immediately set 
out on their return. These plans were adopt- 
ed. He himself was chosen as the command- 
ing general, and under his guidance the whole 
force was conducted safely through the count- 
C 



34 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 402 

Retreat of the Ten Thousand. Xenophon's retirement 

less difficulties and dangers which beset their 
way, though they had to defend themselves, at 
every step of their progress, from ain enemy so 
vastly more numerous than they, and which 
was hanging on their flanks and on their rear, 
and making the most incessant efforts to sur- 
round and capture them. This retreat occu- 
pied two hundred and fifteen days. It has al- 
ways been considered as one of the greatest mil- 
itary achievements that has ever been perform- 
ed It is called in history the Retreat of the 
Ten Thousand. Xenophon acquired by it a 
double immortality. He led the army, and thus 
attained to a military renown which will never 
fade; and he afterward wrote a narrative of 
the exploit, which has given him an equally 
extended and permanent literary fame. 

Some time after this, Xenophon returned 
again to Asia as a military commander, and 
distinguished himself in other campaigns. He 
acquired a large fortune, too, in these wars, 
and at length retired to a villa, which he built 
and adorned magnificently, in the neighborhood 
of Olympia, where Herodotus had acquired so 
extended a fame by reading his histories. It 
was probably, in some degree, through the in- 
fluence of the success which had attended the 



Herodotus and Xenophon. 35 

Xenophon's writings. Credibility of Herodotus and Xencphon 

labors of Herodotus in this field, that Xenophon 
was induced to enter it. He devoted the later 
years of his life to writing various historical 
memoirs, the two most important of which that 
have come down to modern times are, first, the 
narrative of his own expedition, under Cyrus 
the Younger, and, secondly, a sort of romance 
or tale founded on the history of Cyrus the 
Great. This last is called the Cyrop£edia ; and 
it is from this work, and from the history writ- 
ten by Herodotus, that nearly all our knowl- 
edge of the great Persian monarch is derived. 

The question how far the stories which He- 
rodotus and Xenophon have told us in relating 
the history of the great Persian king are true, 
is of less importance than one would at first 
imagine ; for the case is one of those numerous 
instances in which the narrative itself, which 
genius has written, has had far greater influ- 
ence on mankind than the events themselves 
exerted which the narrative professes to record. 
It is now far more important for us to know 
what the story is which has for eighteen hund- 
red years been read and listened to by every 
generation of men, than what the actual events 
were in which the tale thus told had its origin. 
This consideration applies very extensively to 



36 Cyrus THE Great. 

Importance of the story. Object of this work. 

history, and especially to ancient history. The 
events themselves have long since ceased to be 
of any great interest or importance to readers 
of the present day ; but the accounts^ whether 
they are fictitious or real, partial or impartial, 
honestly true or embellished and colored, since 
they have been so widely circulated in every 
age and in every nation, and have impressed 
themselves so universally and so permanently 
in the mind and memory of the whole human 
race, and have penetrated into and colored the 
literature of every civilized people, it becomes 
now necessary that every well-informed man 
should understand. In a word, the real Cyrus 
is now a far less important personage to man- 
kind than the Cyrus of Herodotus and Xeno- 
phon, and it is, accordingly, their story which 
the author proposes to relate in this volume. 
The reader will understand, therefore, that the 
end and aim of the work is not to guarantee 
an exact and certain account of Cyrus as he 
actually lived and acted, but only to give a 
true and faithful summary of the story which 
for the last two thousand years has been in cir- 
culation respecting him among mankind. 



BC.099.] Birth of Cyrus. 37 

The three Asiatic empires. Marriage of Cambyses. 



Chapter II. 

The Birth of Cyrus. 

F INHERE are records coming down to us from 
-*- the very earliest times of three several king- 
doms situated in the heart of Asia — Assyria, 
Media, and Persia, the two latter of which, at 
the period when they first emerge indistinctly 
into view, were more or less connected with and 
dependent upon the former. Astyages was the 
King of Media ; Cambyses was the name of the 
ruling prince or magistrate of Persia. Camby- 
ses married Mandane, the daughter of Astya- 
ges, and Cyrus was their son. In recounting 
the circumstances of his birth, Herodotus re- 
lates, with all seriousness, the following very 
extraordinary story : 

While Mandane was a maiden, living at her 
father's palace and home in Media, Astyages 
awoke one morning terrified by a dream. He 
had dreamed of a great inundation, which over- 
whelmed and destroyed his capital, and sub- 
merged a large part of his kingdom. The great 
rivers of that country were liable to very de- 



38 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 599. 

Story of Maadane. Dream of Astyages= 

struotive floods, and there would have been noth- 
ing extraordinary or alarming in tha king's ima- 
gination being haunted, during hh sleep, by the 
image of such a calamity, were it not that, in 
this case, the deluge of water which produced 
such disastrous results seemed to be, in some 
mysterious way, connected with his daughter, 
so that the dream appeared to portend some 
great calamity which was to originate in her. 
He thought it perhaps indicated that after her 
marriage she should have a son who would re- 
bel against him and seize the supreme power, 
thus overwhelming his kingdom as the inunda- 
tion had done which he had seen in his dream. 
To guard against this imagined danger, As- 
tyages determined that his daughter should not 
be married in Media, but that she should be 
provided with a husband in some foreign land, 
so as to be taken away from Media altogether. 
He finally selected Cambyses, the king of Per* 
sia, for her husband. Persia was at that time 
a comparatively small and circumscribed do- 
minion, and Cambyses, though he seems to 
have been the supreme ruler of it, was very far 
beneath Astyages in rank and power. The dis- 
tance between the two countries was consider- 
able, and the institutions and customs of the 



B.C. 399.] BiKTH OF Cyrus. 39 

Astyages' second dream. Its interpretatioa 

people of Persia were simple and rude, little 
likely to awaken or encourage in the minds of 
their princes any treasonable or ambitious de- 
signs. Astyages thought, therefore, that in 
sending Mandane there to be the wife of the 
king, he had taken effectual precautions to 
guard against the danger portended by his 
dream. 

Mandane was accordingly married, and con- 
ducted by her husband to her new home. About 
a year afterward her father had another dream. 
He dreamed that a vine proceeded from his 
daughter, and, growing rapidly and luxuriantly 
while he was regarding it, extended itself over 
the whole land. Now the vine being a symbol 
of beneficence and plenty, Astyages might have 
considered this vision as an omen of good ; still, 
as it was good which was to be derived in some 
way from his daughter, it naturally awakened 
his fears anew that he was doomed to find a 
rival and competitor for the possession of his 
kingdom in Mandane's son and heir. He call- 
ed together his soothsayers, related his dream to 
them, and asked for their interpretation. They 
decided that it meant that Mandane would have 
a son who would one day become a king. 

Astyages was now seriously alarmed, and he 



40 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.599 

Birth of Cyrus. Astyages determines to destroy him/ 

sent for Mandane to come home, ostensibly be- 
cause he wished her to pay a visit to her father 
and to her native land, but really for the pur- 
pose of having her in his power, that he might 
destroy her child so soon as one should be born. 

Mandane came to Media, and was establish- 
ed by her father in a residence near his palace, 
and such officers and domestics were put in 
charge of her household as Astyages could 
rely upon to do whatever he should command. 
Things being thus arranged, a few months pass- 
ed away, and then Mandane's child was born. 

Immediately on hearing of the event, Asty 
ages sent for a certain officer of his court, an 
unscrupulous and hardened man, who possess- 
ed, as he supposed, enough of depraved and 
reckless resolution for the commission of any 
crime, and addressed him as follows : 

" I have sent for you, Harpagus, to commit 
to your charge a business of very great import- 
ance, I confide fully in your principles of obe- 
dience and fidelity, and depend upon your do- 
ing, yourself, with your own hands, the wcrk 
that I require. If you fail to do it, or if you 
attempt to evade ^t by putting it off upon oth- 
ers, you will sufler severely. I wish you to 
take Mandane's child to your own house and 



B.C.599.] Birth of Cyrus. 41 

Harpagus, The king's command to him. 

put him to death. You may accomplish the 
object in any mode you please, and you may 
arrange the circumstances of the burial of the 
body, or the disposal of it in any other way, as 
you think best ; the essential thing is, that you 
see to it, yourself, that the child is killed.'- 

Harpagus replied that whatever the king 
might command it was his duty to do, and that, 
as his master had never hitherto had occasion 
to censure his conduct, he should not find him 
wanting now. Harpagus then went to receive 
the infant. The attendants of Mandane had 
been ordered to deliver it to him. Not at all 
suspecting the object for which the child was 
thus taken away, but naturally supposing, on 
the other hand, that it was for the purpose 
of some visit, they arrayed their unconscious 
charge in the most highly-wrought and costly 
of the robes which Mandane, his mother, had 
for many months been interested in preparing 
for him, and then gave him up to the custody 
of Harpagus, expecting, doubtless, that he would 
be very speedily returned to their care. 

Although Harpagus had expressed a ready 
willingness to obey the cruel behest of the king 
at the time of receiving it, he manifested, as 
soon as he received the child, an extreme de- 



42 Cyrus THE Great [B.C.599. 

Distress of Harpagus. His consultation with his wifo. 

gree of anxiety and distress. He immediately 
sent for a herdsman named Mitridates to come 
to him. In the mean time, he took the child 
home to his house, and in a very excited and 
agitated manner related to his wife what had 
passed. He laid the child down in the apart- 
ment, leaving it neglected and alone, while he 
conversed with his wife in a hurried and anx 
ious manner in respect to the dreadful situation 
in which he found himself placed. She asked 
him what he intended to do. He replied that he 
certainly should not, himself, destroy the child. 
'' It is the son of Mandane," said he. '' She 
is the king's daughter. If the king should die, 
Mandane would succeed him, and then what 
terrible danger would impend over me if she 
should know me to have been the slayer of her 
son !" Harpagus said, moreover, that he did 
not dare absolutely to disobey the orders of the 
king so far as to save the child's life, and that 
he had sent for a herdsman, whose pastures ex- 
tended to wild and desolate forests and mount* 
ains — the gloomy haunts of wild beasts and 
birds of prey — intending to give the child to 
him, with orders to carry it into those solitudes 
and abandon it there. His name was Mitridates. 
While they were speaking thi» herdsman 



B.C. 599] Birth of Cyrus. 43 

The herdsman. He con\c>8 the child to his hut 

came in. He found Harpagus and his wife 
talking thus together, with countenances ex- 
pressive of anxiety and distress, while the child, 
uneasy under the confinement and inconven- 
iences of its splendid dress, and terrified at the 
strangeness of the scene and the circumstances 
around it, and perhaps, moreover, experiencing 
some dawning and embryo emotions of resent- 
ment at being laid down in neglect, cried aloud 
and incessantly. Harpagus gave the astonish- 
ed herdsman his charge. He, afraid, as Harpa- 
gus had been in the presence of Astyages, to 
evince any hesitation in respect to obeying the 
orders of his superior, whatever they might be, 
took up the child and bore it away. 

He carried it to his hut. It so happened that 
his wife, whose name was Space, had at that 
very time a new-born child, but it was dead. 
Her dead son had, in fact, been born during 
the absence of Mitridates. He had been ex- 
tremely unwilling to leave his home at such 
a time, but the summons of Harpagus must, 
he knew, be obeyed. His wife, too, not know- 
ing what could have occasioned so sudden and 
urgent a call, had to bear, all the day, a burden 
of anxiety and solicitude in respect to her hus- 
band, in addition to her disappointment and 



44 CvRus THE Great. [B.C. 599 



The herdsman's wife. Conversation in the hut 

grief at the loss of her child. Her anxiety and 
grief were changed for a little time into as- 
tonishment and curiosity at seeing the beauti- 
ful babe, so magnificently dressed, which her 
husband brought to her, and at hearing his ex- 
traordinary story. 

He said that when he first entered the house 
of Harpagus and saw the child lying there, and 
heard the directions which Harpagus gave him 
to carry it into the mountains and leave it to 
die, he supposed that the babe belonged to some 
of the domestics of the household, and that Har- 
pagus wished to have it destroyed in order to 
be relieved of a burden. The richness, how- 
ever, of the infant's dress, and the deep anxiety 
and sorrow which was indicated by the coun- 
tenances and by the conversation of Harpagus 
and his wife, and which seemed altogether too 
earnest to be excited by the concern which, they 
would probably feel for any servant's off*spring; 
appeared at the time, he said, inconsistent with 
that supposition, and perplexed and bewildered 
him. He said, moreover, that in the end, Har- 
pagus had sent a man with him a part of the 
way when he left the house, and that this man 
had given him a fuil explanation of the case. 
The child was the son of Mandane, the daugh*' 



B.C.599.] Birth of Cyrus. 4£ 

Entreaties of the herdsman's wife to save the child's life. 

ter of the king, and he was to be destroyed by 
the orders of Astyages himself, for fear that at 
some future period he might attempt to usurp 
the throne. 

They who know any thing of the feelings of 
a mother under the circumstances in which 
Space was placed, can imagine with what emo- 
tions she received the little sufferer, now nearly 
exhausted by abstinence, fatigue, and fear, from 
her husband's hands, and the heartfelt pleasure 
with which she drew him to her bosom, to com- 
fort and relieve him. In an hour she was, as 
it were, herself his mother, and she began to 
plead hard with her husband for his life. 

Mitridates said that the child could not pos- 
sibly be saved. Harpagus had been most earn- 
est and positive in his orders, and he was com- 
ing himself to see that they had been executed. 
He would demand, undoubtedly, to see the body 
of the child, to assure himself that it was ac- 
tually dead. Spaco, instead of being convinced 
by her husband's reasoning, only became more 
and more earnest in her desires that the child 
might be saved. She rose from her couch 
and clasped her husband's knees, and begged 
him with the most earnest entreaties and with 
many tears to grant her request. Her husband 
4 



46 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 599 

Spaco substitutes her dead child for Cyrus. 

was, however, inexorable. He said that if he 
were to yield, and attempt to save the child 
from its doom, Harpagus would most certain* 
ly know" that his orders had been disobeyed, 
and then their own lives would be forfeited, 
and the child itself sacrificed after all, in the 
end. 

The thought then occurred to Spaco that 
her own dead child might be substituted for the 
living one, and be exposed in the mountains in 
its stead. She proposed this plan, and, after 
much anxious doubt and hesitation, the herds- 
man consented to adopt it. They took off the 
splendid robes which adorned the living child, 
and put them on the corpse, each equally un- 
conscious of the change. The little limbs of 
the son of Mandane were then more simply 
clothed in the coarse and scanty covering which 
belonged to the new character which he was 
now to assume, and then the babe was restor- 
ed to its place in Space's bosom. Mitridates 
placed his own dead child, completely disguised 
as it was by the royal robes it wore, in the littlo 
basket or cradle in which the other had been 
brought, and, accompanied by an attendant, 
whom he was to leave in the forest to keep 
watch over the body, he went away to seek 



B.C.599.] Birth of Cyrus. 49 

The artifice successful. The body buried. 

some wild and desolate solitude in which to 
leave it exposed. 

Three days passed away, during which the 
attendant whom the herdsman had left in the 
forest watched near the body to prevent its 
being devoured by wild beasts or birds of prey, 
and at the end of that time he brought it home. 
The herdsman then went to Harpagus to in- 
form him that the child was dead, and, in proof 
that it was really so, he said that if Harpagus 
would come to his hut he could see the body. 
Harpagus sent some messenger in whom he 
could confide to make the observation. The 
herdsman exhibited the dead child to him, and 
ho was satisfied. He reported the result ol 
his mission to Harpagus, and Harpagus then 
ordered the body to be buried. The child of 
Mandane, whom we may call Cyrus, since that 
was the name which he subsequently received, 
was brought up in the herdsman's hut, and 
passed every where for Space's child. 

Harpagus, after receiving the report of his 
messenger, then informed x4.styages that his 
orders had been executed, and that the child 
was dead. A trusty messenger, he said, whom 
he had sent for the purpose, had seen the body. 
A^lthough the king had been so earnest to have 
D 



50 Cyrus the Grea'i. [B.C 589. 

Remorse of Astyages. Boyhood of Cyrus. 



the deed performed, he found that, after alL the 
knowledge that his orders had been obeyed 
gave him very little satisfaction. The fears, 
prompted by his selfishness and ambition, which 
had led him to commit the crime, gave place, 
when it had been perpetrated, to remorse for 
his unnatural cruelty. Mandane mourned in- 
cessantly the death of her innocent babe, and 
loaded her father with reproaches for having 
destroyed it, which he found it very hard tc 
bear. In the end, he repented bitterly of what 
he had done. 

The secret of the child's preservation re- 
mained- concealed for about ten years. It was 
then discovered in the following manner : 

Cyrus, like Alexander, Csesar, William the 
Conqueror, Napoleon, and other commanding 
minds, who obtained a great ascendency over 
masses of men in their maturer years, evinced 
his dawning superiority at a very early period 
of his boyhood. He took the lead of his play- 
mates in their sports, and made them submit 
to his regulations and decisions. Not only did 
the peasants' boys in the little hamlet w^here 
his reputed father lived thus yield the prece- 
dence to him, but sometimes, when the sons of 
men of rank and station came out from the city 



B.C.589.J Birth of Cvrus. 51 

Cynis a king among the boys. A quarrel. 

to join them in their plays, even then Cyrus 
was the acknowledged head. One day tlie son 
of an officer of King Astyages's court — his fa- 
ther's name was Artembaris — came out, with 
other boys from the city, to join these village 
boys in their sports. They were playing king. 
Cyrus was the king. Herodotus says that the 
other boys chose him as such. It was, however, 
probably such a sort of choice as that by which 
kings and emperors are made among men, a 
yielding more or less voluntary on the part of 
the subjects to the resolute and determined en- 
ergy with which the aspirant places himself 
upon the throne. 

During the progress of the play, a quarrel 
arose between Cyrus and the son of Artemba- 
ris. The latter would not obey, and Cyrus 
beat him. He went home and complained bit- 
terly to his father. The father went to Asty- 
ages to protest against such an indignity offered 
to his son by a peasant boy, and demanded that 
the little tyrant should be punished. Probably 
far the larger portion of intelligent readers of 
history consider the whole story as a romance: 
bat if we look upon it as in any respect true, 
we must conclude that the Median monarchy 
must have been, at that time, in a very rude 



52 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 58ft. 

Cyrus summoned into the presence of Astyages. 

and simple condition indeed, to allow of the sub- 
mission of such a question as this to the per- 
sonal adjudication of the reigning king. 

However this may be, Herodotus states that 
Artembaris went to the palace of Astyages, 
taking his son with him, to offer proofs of the 
violence of which the herdsman's son had been 
guilty, by showing the contusions and bruises 
that had been produced by the blows. '^ Is this 
the treatment," he asked, indignantly, of the 
king, when he had completed his statement, 
" that my boy is to receive from the son of one 
of your slaves ?" 

Astyages seemed to be convinced that Ar- 
tembaris had just cause to complain, and he 
sent for Mitridates and his son to come to him 
in the city. When they arrived, Cyrus advanc- 
ed into the presence of the king with that cour- 
ageous and manly bearing which romance writ- 
ers are so fond of ascribing to boys of noble 
birth, whatever may have been the circum- 
stances of their early training. Astyages was 
much struck with his appearance and air. He, 
however, sternly laid to his charge the accusa- 
tion which Artembaris had brought against 
him. Pointing to Artembaris's son, all bruised 
?Lnd swollen as he was, he asked, " Is that the 



B.C. 589.] Birth OF Cyrus. 5'S 

Cyrus'i defense. Astonishment of Astyages. 

way that you, a mere herdsman's boy, dare to 
treat the son of one of my nobles ?" 

The little prince looked up into his stern 
judge's face with an undaunted expression of 
countenance, which, considering the circum- 
stances of the case, and the smallness of the 
scale on which this embryo heroism was repre- 
sented, was partly ludicrous and partly sublime. 
'^My lord," said he, ^' what I have done I am 
able to justify. I did punish this boy, and I 
had a right to do so. I was king, and he was 
my subject, and he would not obey me. If you 
think that for this I deserve punishment myself, 
here 1 am ; I am ready to suffer it." 

If Astyages had been struck with the appear- 
ance and manner of Cyrus at the commence- 
ment of the interview, his admiration was awak- 
ened far more strongly now, at hearing such 
words, uttered, too, in so exalted a tone, from 
such a child. He remained a long time silent. 
At last he told Artembaris and his son that 
they might retire. He would take the aifair, 
he said, into his own hands, and dispose of it in 
a just and proper manner. Astyages then took 
the herdsman aside, and asked him, in an earn- 
t est tone, whose boy that was, and where he 
had obtained him. 



54 Cyrus THE Great. [B.C. t589 

The discovery. Mingled feelings of Astyagea 

Mitridates was terrified. He replied, how- 
ever, that the boy was his own son, and that 
his mother was still living at home, in the hut 
where they all resided. There seems to have 
been something, however, in his appearance and 
manner, while making these assertions, which 
led Astyages not to believe what he said. He 
was convinced that there was some unexplained 
mystery in respect to the origin of the boy, 
which the herdsman was willfully withholding. 
He assumed a displeased and threatening air, 
and ordered in his guards to take Mitridates 
into custody. The terrified herdsman then said 
that he would explain all, and he accordingly 
related honestly the whole story. 

Astyages was greatly rejoiced to find that 
the child was alive. One would suppose it to 
be almost inconsistent with this feeling that he 
should be angry with Harpagus for not having 
destroyed it. It would seem, in fact, that Har- 
pagus was not amenable to serious censure, in 
any view of the subject, for he had taken what 
he had a right to consider very effectual meas- 
ures for carrying the orders of the king into 
faithful execution. But Astyages seems to 
have been one of those inhuman monsters which 
the possession and long-continued exercise of 



3.C.589.] Birth of Cyrus. 55 

oihuman monsters. Astyages detennines to punish Harpagua 

iespotio power have so often made, who take a 
cahn, quiet, and deliberate satisfaction in tor- 
turing to death any wretched victim whom they 
oan have any pretext for destroying, especially 
if they can invent some new means of torment 
to give a fresh piquancy to their pleasure. 
These monsters do not act from passion. Men 
are sometimes inclined to palliate great cruel- 
ties and crimes which are perpetrated under the 
influence of sudden anger, or from the terrible 
impulse of those impetuous and uncontrollable 
emotions of the human soul which, when once 
excited, seem to make men insane ; but the 
crimes of a tyrant are not of this kind. They 
are the calm, deliberate, and sometimes care- 
fully economized gratifications of a nature es- 
sentially malign. 

When, therefore, Astyages learned that Har- 
pagus had failed of literally obeying his com- 
mand to destroy, with his own hand, the infant 
which had been given him, although he was 
pleased with the consequences which had re- 
sulted from it, he immediately perceived that 
there was another pleasure besides that he was 
to derive from the transaction, namely, that of 
gratifying his own imperious and ungovernabla 
will by taking vengeance on him who had failed; 



56 Cyrus the Great. [B.C 589. 

Interview between Astyages and Harpagus. Explanation of Harpagus. 

even in so slight a degree, of fulfilling its dic- 
tates. In a word, he was glad that the child 
was saved, but he did not consider that that 
was any reason why he should not have the 
pleasure of punishing the man who saved him. 
Thus, far from being transported by any sud- 
den and violent feeling of resentment to an in- 
considerate act of revenge, Astyages began, 
calmly and coolly, and with a deliberate ma- 
lignity more worthy of a demon than of a man, 
to consider how he could best accomplish the 
purpose he had in view. When, at length, his 
plan was formed, he sent for Harpagus to come 
to him. Harpagus came. The king began 
the conversation by asking Harpagus what 
method he had employed for destroying the 
child of Mandane, which he, the king, had de- 
livered to him some years before. Harpagus 
replied by stating the exact truth. He said 
that, as soon as he had received the infant, he 
began immediately to consider by what means 
he could effect its destruction without involving 
himself in the guilt of murder; that, finally, 
he had determined upon employing the herds- 
man Mitridates to expose it in the forest till it 
should perish of hunger and cold; and, in order 
to be sure that the king's behest was fully 



B.C. 589.] Birth OF Cyrus. 57 



Diflsimulation of Astyages. He proposes an entertainmenL 

obeyed, he charged the herdsman, he said, to 
keep strict watch near the child till it was dead, 
and then to bring home the body. He had then 
sent a confidential messenger from his own 
household to see the body and provide for its 
interment. He solemnly assured the king, in 
conclusion, that this was the real truth, and 
that the child was actually destroyed in the 
manner he had described. 

The king then, with an appearance of great 
satisfaction and pleasure, informed Harpagus 
that the child had not been destroyed after all, 
and he related to him the circumstances of its 
having been exchanged for the dead child of 
Space, and brought up in the herdsman's hut. 
He informed him, too, of the singular manner 
in which the fact that the infant had been pre- 
served, and was still alive, had been discovered. 
He told Harpagus, moreover, that he was great- 
ly rejoiced at this discovery. ^' After he was 
dead, as I supposed," said he, '^I bitterly re- 
pented of having given orders to destroy him, 
I could not bear my daughter's grief, or the re- 
proaches which she incessantly uttered against 
me. But the child is alive, and all is well ; and 
I am going to give a grand entertainment as a 
festival of rejoicing on the occasion." 



58 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 589 

Astyages invites Harpagns to a grand entertainment. 

Astyages then requested Harpagus to send 
his son, who was about thirteen years of age, 
to the palace, to be a companion to Cyrus, and, 
inviting him very specially to come to the enter- 
tainment, he dismissed him with many marks 
of attention and honor. Harpagus went home, 
trembling at the thought of the imminent dan- 
ger which he had incurred, and of the narrow 
escape by which he had been saved from it. 
He called his son, directed him to prepare him- 
self to go to the king, and dismissed him with 
many charges in respect to his behavior, both 
toward the king and toward Cyrus. He related 
to his wife the conversation which had taken 
place between himself and Astyages, and she re- 
joiced with him in the apparently happy issue 
of an affair which misfht well have been ex- 
pected to have been their ruin. 

The sequel of the story is too horrible to be 
told, and yet too essential to a right understand- 
ing of the influences and effects produced on 
human nature by the possession and exercise 
of despotic and irresponsible power to be omit- 
ted. Harpagus came to the festival. It was 
a grand entertainment. Harpagus was placed 
in a conspicuous position at the table. A great 
variety of dishes were brought in and set be» 



B.C.589.] Birth OF Cyrus. 59 

Horrible revenge. Action of Ilarpagaa 

lore the different guests, and were eaten with- 
out question. Toward the close of the feast, 
Astyages asked Harpagus what he thought of 
his fare. Harpagus, half terrified with some 
mysterious presentiment of danger, expressed 
himself well pleased with it. Astyages then 
told him there was plenty more of the same 
kind, and ordered the attendants to bring the 
basket in. They came accordingly, and un- 
covered a basket before the wretched guest, 
which contained, as he saw when he looked 
into it, the head, and hands, and feet of his 
son. Astyages asked him to help himself to 
whatever part he liked ! 

The most astonishing part of the story is yet 
to be told. It relates to the action of Harpa- 
gus in such an emergency. He looked as com- 
posed and placid as if nothing unusual had oc- 
curred. The king asked him if he knew what 
he had been eating. He said that he did ; and 
that whatever was agreeable to the will of the 
king was always pleasing to him ! ! 

It is hard to say whether despotic power ex- 
erts its worst and most direful influences on 
chose who wield it, or on those who have it to 
bear ; on its masters, or on its slaves. 

After the first feelings of pleasure which As- 



60 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 689 

Astyages becomes uneasy. The magi again c onsulted 

tyages experienced in being relieved from the 
sense of guilt which oppressed his mind so long 
as he supposed that his orders for the murder 
of his infant grandchild had been obeyed, his 
former uneasiness lest the child should in fu- 
ture years become his rival and competitor for 
the possession of the Median throne, which had 
been the motive originally instigating him to 
the commission of the crime, returned in some 
measure again, and he began to consider wheth- 
er it was not incumbent on him to take some 
measures to guard against such a result. The 
end of his deliberations was, that he concluded 
to send for the magi, or soothsayers, as he had 
done in the case of his dream, and obtain their 
judgment on the affair in the new aspect which 
it had now assumed. 

When the magi had heard the king's narra- 
tive of the circumstances under which the dis- 
covery of the child's preservation had been 
made, through complaints which had been pre- 
ferred against him on account of the manner in 
which he had exercised the prerogatives of a 
king among his playmates, they decided at once 
that Astyages had no cause for any further ap- 
prehensions in respect to the dreams which had 
disturbed him previous to his grandchild's birth 



B.C.089.J Birth of Cyrus. 61 

Advice of the magi. Astyages adopts it 

" He has been a king," they said, " and the 
danger is over. It is true that he has been a 
monarch only in play, but that is enough to 
satisfy and fulfill the presages of the vision. 
Occurrences very slight and trifling in them- 
selves are often found to accomplish what seem- 
ed of very serious magnitude and moment, as 
portended. Your grandchild has been a king, 
and he v^ill never reign again. You have, 
therefore, no further cause to fear, and may 
send him to his parents in Persia with perfect 
safety." 

The king determined to adopt this advice 
He ordered the soothsayers, however, not to re* 
mit their assiduity and vigilance, and if any 
signs or omens should appear to indicate ap- 
proaching danger, he charged them to give him 
immediate warning. This they faithfully prom- 
ised to do. They felt, they said, a personal in- 
terest in doing it; for Cyrus being a Persian 
prince, his accession to the Median throne would 
involve the subjection of the Medes to the Per- 
sian dominion, a result which they wished on 
every account to avoid. So, promising to watch 
\rigilantly for every indication of danger, they 
left the presence of the king. The king then 
i^nt for Cyrus. 
5 



62 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 589. 

Gyrus sets out for Persia. His parents* joy 

It seems that Cyrus, though astonished at 
the great and mysterious changes which had 
taken place in his condition, was still ignorant 
of his true history. Astyages now told him 
that he was to go into Persia. " You will re" 
join there," said he, " your true parents, who, 
you will find, are of very different rank in life 
from the herdsman whom you have lived with 
thus far. You will make the journey unde' 
the charge and escort of persons that I have ap- 
pointed for the purpose. They will explain to 
you, on the way, the mystery in which your 
parentage and birth seems to you at present 
enveloped. You will find that I was induced 
many years ago, by the influence of an unto- 
ward dream, to treat you injuriously. But all 
has ended well, and you can now go in peace 
to your proper home." 

As soon as the preparations for the journey 
could be made, Cyrus set out, under the care 
of the party appointed to conduct him, and went 
to Persia. His parents were at first dumb with 
astonishment, and were then overwhelmed with 
gladness and joy at seeing their much-loved and 
long-lost babe reappear, as if from the dead, in 
the form of this tall and handsome boy, with 
health, intelligence, and happiness beaming in 



B.C 589.] Birth of Cyrus. 63 

Life at Cambyses*s court. Instruction of the young men, 

his countenance. They overwhelmed him with 
caresses, and the heart of Mandane, especially, 
was filled with pride and pleasure. 

As soon as Cyrus became somewhat settled 
in his new home, his parents began to make 
arrangements for giving him as complete an 
education as the m.eans and opportunities of 
those days afforded. 

Xenophon, in his narrative of the early life of 
Cyrus, gives a minute, and, in some respects 
quite an extraordinary account of the mode of 
life led in Cambyses's court. The sons of ali 
the nobles and officers of the court were educa- 
ted together, within the precincts of the royal 
palaces, or, rather, they spent their time togeth- 
er there, occupied in various pursuits and avo- 
cations, which were intended to train them for 
the duties of future life, though there was very 
little of what would be considered, in modern 
times, as education. They were not generally 
taught to read, nor could they, in fact, since 
there were no books, have used that art if they 
had acquired it. The only intellectual instruc- 
tion which they seem to have received was 
what was called learning justice. The boys 
had certain teachers, who explained to them, 
more or less formally, the general principles of 



64 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 588. 

Cyrus a judge. His decision in that capacity 

right and wrong, the injunctions and prohibi- 
tions of the laws, and the obligations resulting 
from them, and the rules by which controver- 
sies between man and man, arising in the va- 
rious relations of life, should be settled. The 
boys were also trained to apply these principles 
and rules to the cases which occurred among 
themselves, each acting as judge in turn, to 
discuss and decide the questions that arose from 
time to time, either from real transactions as 
they occurred, or from hypothetical cases in- 
vented to put their powers to the test. To stim- 
ulate the exercise of their powers, they were re- 
warded when they decided right, and punished 
when they decided wrong. Cyrus himself was 
punished on one occasion for a wrong decision, 
under the following circumstances : 

A bigger boy took away the coat of a smaller 
boy than himself, because it was larger than 
his own, and gave him his own smaller coat in- 
stead. The smaller boy complained of the 
wrong, and the case was referred to Cyrus for 
his adjudication. After hearing the case, Cy- 
rus decided that each boy should keep the coat 
that fitted him. The teacher condemned this 
as a very unjust decision. '^When you are 
called upon,'' said he, ^'to consider a question 



B.C. 588.] Birth of Cyrus 65 

Cyrus punished. Manly exerclsea 

of what fits best, then you should determine as 
yc^u have done in this case ; but when you are 
appointed to decide whose each coat is, and to 
adjudge it to the proper owner, then you are to 
consider what constitutes right possession, and 
whether he who takes a thing by force from one 
who is weaker than himself, should have it, or 
whether he who made it or purchased it should 
be protected in his property. You have decid- 
ed against law, and in favor of violence and 
wrong." Cyrus's sentence was thus condemn- 
ed, and he was punished for not reasoning more 
soundly. 

The boys at this Persian court were trained 
to many manly exercises. They were taught 
to wrestle and to run. They were instructed 
in the use of such arms as were employed in 
those times, and rendered dexterous in the use 
of them by daily exercises. They were taught 
to put their skill in practice, too, in hunting 
excursions, which they took, by turns, with the 
king, in the neighboring forest and mountains. 
On these occasions, they were armed w^ith a 
bow, and a quiver of arrows, a shield, a small 
sword or dagger, which was worn at the side 
in a sort of scabbard, and two javelins. One 
of these was intended to be thrown, the other 
E 



66 Cyrcts the Great. [B.C.588. 

Hiintlag excursions. Personal appearance of Cynia 

to be retained in the hand, for use in close 
combatj in case the wild beast, in his despera- 
tion, should advance to a personal rencounter. 
These hunting expeditions were considered ex- 
tremely important as a part of the system 
of youthful training. They were often long 
and fatiguing. The young men became in- 
ured, by means of them, to toil, and privation, 
and exposure. They had to make long march- 
es, to encounter great dangers, to engage in 
desperate conflicts, and to submit sometimes 
to the inconveniences of hunger and thirst, as 
well as exposure to the extremes of heat and 
cold, and to the violence of storms. All this 
was considered as precisely the right sort of 
discipline to make them good soldiers in their 
future martial campaigns. 

Cyrus was not, himself, at this time, old 
enough to take a very active part in these se- 
verer services, as they belonged to a somewhat 
advanced stage of Persian education, and he 
was yet not quite twelve years old. He was 
a very beautiful boy, tall and graceful in form, 
and his countenance was striking and express- 
ive. He was very frank and open in his dis- 
position and character, speaking honestly, and 
without fear, the sentiments of his heart, in 



B.C. 588.] Birth of Cyrus. 67 

Disposition and character of Cyrus- A universal favorite 

any presence and on all occasions. He was 
extremely kind hearted, and amiable, too, in 
his disposition, averse to saying or doing any 
thing which could give pain to those around 
him. In fact, the openness and cordiality of 
his address and manners, and the unaffected 
ingenuousness and sincerity which character- 
ized his disposition, made him a universal fa- 
vorite. His frankness, his childish simplicity, 
his vivacity, his personal grace and beauty, and 
his generous and self-sacrificing spirit, rendered 
him the object of general admiration through- 
out the court, and filled Mandane's heart with 
maternal gladness and pride. 



68 Cyrus the Great [B.C.587 

Astyagoa sends for Cyrus. Cyrus goes to Media 



Chapter III. 
The Visit to Media. 

WHEN Cyrus was about twelve years old, 
if the narrative which Xenophon gives of 
his history is true, he was invited by his grand- 
father Astyages to make a visit to Media. As 
he was about ten years of age, according to He- 
rodotus, when he was restored to his parents, 
he could have been residing only two years in 
Persia when he received this invitation. Dur- 
ing this period, Astyages had received, through 
Mandane and others, very glowing descriptions 
of the intelligence and vivacity of the young 
prince, and he naturally felt a desire to see him 
once more. In fact, Cyrus's personal attract- 
iveness and beauty, joined to a certain frank 
and noble generosity of spirit which he seems 
to have manifested in his earliest years, made 
him a universal favorite at home, and the re- 
ports of these qualities, and of the various say- 
ings and doings on Cyrus's part, by which his 
disposition and character were revealed, awak^ 
ened strongly in the mind of Astyages that kind 



B.C. 587.] Visit to Media. 69 

Cyrus's reception. His astonishment 

of interest which a grandfather is always very 
prone to feel in a handsome and precocious 
grandchild. 

As Cyrus had been sent to Persia as soon as 
his true rank had been discovered, he had had 
no opportunities of seeing the splendor of royal 
life in Media, and the manners and habits of 
the Persians were very plain and simple. Cy- 
rus was accordingly very much impressed with 
the magnificence of the scenes to which he was 
introduced when he arrived in Media, and with 
the gayeties and luxuries, the pomp and dis- 
play, and the spectacles and parades in which 
the Median court abounded. Astyages himself 
took great pleasure in witnessing and increas- 
ing his little grandson's admiration for these 
wonders. It is one of the most extraordinary 
and beautiful of the provisions which God has 
made for securing the continuance of human 
happiness to the very end of life, that we can 
renew, through sympathy with children, the 
pleasures which, for ourselves alone, had long 
since, through repetition and satiety, lost their 
charm. The rides, the walks, the flowers gath- 
ered by the road-side, the rambles among peb- 
bles on the beach, the songs, the games, and 
even the little picture-book of childish taleS; 



70 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.587 

Sympathy with childhood. Pleasures of old age. 

which have utterly and entirely lost their pow- 
er to affect the mind even of middle life, direct- 
ly and alone, regain their magic influence, and 
call up vividly all the old emotions, even to the 
heart of decrepit age, when it seeks these en- 
joyments in companionship and sympathy with 
children or grandchildren beloved. By giving 
to us this capacity for renewing our own sensi- 
tiveness to the impressions of pleasure through 
sympathy with childhood, God has provided a 
true and effectual remedy for the satiety and 
insensibility of age. Let any one who is in the 
decline of years, whose time passes but heavily 
away, and who supposes that nothing can awak- 
en interest in his mind or give him pleasure, 
make the experiment of taking children to a 
ride or to a concert, or to see a menagerie or a 
museum, and he will find that there is a way 
by which he can again enjoy very highly the 
pleasures which he had supposed were for him 
forever exhausted and gone. 

This was the result, at all events, in the case 
of Astyages and Cyrus. The monarch took a 
new pleasure in the luxuries and splendors 
which had long since lost their charm for him, 
in observing their influence and eflect upon the 
mind of his little grandson. Cyrus, as we have 



B.C. 587.] Visit to Media. 71 

Charat ter of Cyrus. First interview with his gramdfather 

already said, was very frank and open in his 
disposition, and spoke with the utmost freedom 
of every thing that he saw. He was, of course, 
a privileged person, and could always say what 
the feeling of the moment and his own childish 
conceptions prompted, without danger. He had, 
however, according to the account which Xen- 
ophon gives, a great deal of good sense, as well 
as of sprightliness and brilliancy ; so that, while 
his remarks, through their originality and point, 
attracted every one's attention, there was a na- 
tive politeness and sense of propriety which re- 
strained him from saying any thing to give 
pain. Even when he disapproved of and con- 
demned what he saw in the arrangements of his 
grandfather's court or household, he did it in such 
a manner — so ingenuous, good-natured, and un- 
assuming, that it amused all and offended none. 
In fact, on the very first interview which As- 
fcyages had with Cyrus, an instance of the boy's 
readiness and tact occurred, which impressed 
his grandfather very much in his favor. The 
Persians, as has been already remarked, were 
accustomed to dress very plainly, while, on the 
other hand, at the Median court the superior 
officers, and especially the king, were always 
very splendidly adorned. Accordingly, when 



72 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 587. 

Dress of the king. Cyrus's c. nsiderate reply 

Cyrus was introduced into his grandfatLer^s 
presence, he was quite dazzled with the display. 
The king wore a purple robe, very richly adorn- 
ed, with a belt and collars, which were embroid- 
ered highly, and set with precious stones. He 
had bracelets, too, upon his wrists, of the most 
costly character. He wore flowing locks of ar- 
tificial hair, and his face was painted, after the 
Median manner. Cyrus gazed upon this gay 
spectacle for a few moments in silence, and then 
exclaimed, '' Why, mother ! what a handsome 
man my grandfather is !" 

Such an exclamation, of course, made great 
amusement both for the king himself and for 
the others who were present; and at length, 
Mandane, somewhat indiscreetly, it must be 
confessed, asked Cyrus which of the two he 
thought the handsomest, his father or his grand- 
father. Cyrus escaped from the danger of de- 
ciding such a formidable question by saying 
that his father was the handsomest man in 
Persia, but his grandfather was the handsom- 
est of all the Medes he had ever seen. Asty- 
ages was even more pleased by this proof of his 
grandson's adroitness and good sense than he 
had been with the compliment which the boy 
had paid to him; and thenceforward Cyrus be« 



B.C. 587] Visit to Media. 73 



Habits of Cyrus. Horsemanship amoi.^ the Persians. 

oame an established favorite, and did and said, 
in his grandfather's presence, ahuost whatever 
he pleased. 

When the first childish feelings of excitement 
and curiosity had subsided, Cyrus seemed to at- 
tach very little value to the fine clothes and 
gay trappings with v/hich his grandfather was 
disposed to adorn him, and to all the other 
external marks of parade and display, which 
were generally so much prized among the 
Modes. He was much more inclined to con- 
tinue in his former habits of plain dress and 
frugal means than to imitate Median ostenta- 
tion and luxury. There was one pleasure, how- 
ever, to be found in Media, which in Persia he 
had never enjoyed, that he prized very highly. 
That was the pleasure of learning to ride on 
horseback. The Persians, it seems, either be- 
cause their country was a rough and mountain- 
ous region, or for some other cause, were very 
little accustomed to ride. They had very few 
horses, and there were no bodies of cavalry in 
their armies. The young men, therefore, were 
not trained to the art of horsemanship. Even 
in their hunting excursions they went always 
on foot, and were accustomed to make long 
marches through the forests and among the 



74 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.587 

Cyrus learns to ride. His delight 

mountains in this manner, loaded heavily, too, 
all the time, with the burden of arms and pro. 
visions which they were obliged to carry. It 
was, therefore, a new pleasure to Cyrus to 
mount a horse. Horsemanship was a great art 
among the Medes. Their horses were beautiful 
and fleet, and splendidly caparisoned. Astyages 
provided for Cyrus the best animals which could 
be procured, and the boy was very proud and 
happy in exercising himself in the new accom- 
plishment which he thus had the opportunity 
to acquire. To ride is always a great source 
of pleasure to boys ; but in that period of the 
world, when physical strength was so much 
more important and more highly valued than 
at present, horsemanship was a vastly greater 
source of gratification than it is now. Cyrus 
felt that he had, at a single leap, quadrupled 
his power, and thus risen at once to a far higher 
rank in the scale of being than he had occupied 
before ; for, as soon as he had once learned to 
be at home in the saddle, and to subject the 
spirit and the power of his horse tc his own 
will, the courage, the strength, and the speed 
of the animal became, in fact, almost personal 
acquisitions of his own. He felt, accordingly, 
when he was galloping over the plains, or pur- 



.B.C. 587.] Visit to Media. 75 

Amusements with the boys. The cup-bearer. 

suing deer in the park, or running over the race* 
course with his companions, as if it was some 
newly-acquired strength and speed of his own 
that he was exercising, and which, by some 
magic power, was attended by no toilsome ex- 
ertion, and followed by no fatigue. 

The various officers and servants in Astya- 
ges's household, as well as Astyages himself, 
soon began to feel a strong interest in the young 
prince. Each took a pleasure in explaining to 
him what pertained to their several depart- 
ments, and in teaching him whatever he desired 
to learn. The attendant highest in rank in 
such a household was the cup-bearer. He had 
the charge of the tables and the wine, and all 
the general arrangements of the palace seem to 
have been under his direction. The cup-bearer 
in Astyages's court was a Sacian. He was, 
however, less a friend to Cyrus than the rest. 
There was nothing within the range of his offi- 
cial duties that he could teach the boy ; and Cy- 
rus did not like his wine. Besides, when Astya- 
ges was engaged, it was the cup-bearer's duty to 
guard him from interruption, and at such times 
he often had occasion to restrain the young 
prince from the liberty of entering his grand- 
father's apartments as often as he pleased. 



76 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 587. 

The entertainment. Cyrus's conversation. 

At one of the entertainments which Asty ages 
gave in his palace, Cyrus and Mandane were 
invited ; and Astyages, in order to gratify the 
young prince as highly as possible, set before 
him a great variety of dishes — meats, and sauc- 
es, and delicacies of every kind — all served in 
costly vessels, and with great parade and cere- 
mony. He supposed that Cyrus would have 
been enraptured with the luxury and splendoi 
of the entertainment. He did not, however, 
seem much pleased. Astyages asked him the 
reason, and whether the feast which he saw be- 
fore him was not a much finer one than he had 
been accustomed to see in Persia. Cyrus said, 
in reply, that it seemed to him to be very trouble- 
some to have to eat a little of so many separate 
things. In Persia they managed, he thought, 
a great deal better. '' And how do you man- 
age in Persia?" asked Astyages. ''Why, in 
Persia," replied Cyrus, " we have plain bread 
and meat, and eat it when we are hungry ; so 
we get health and strength, and have very little 
trouble." Astyages laughed at this simplicity, 
and told Cyrus that he might, if he preferred it, 
live on plain bread and meat while he remain- 
ed in Media, and then he would return to Per- 
%m in as good health as he came. 



B.C. 587.] N'isiT TO Media. 77 

Cyrus and the Sacian cup-bearer. Cyrus slights him, 

Cyrus was satisfied ; he, however, asked his 
grandfather if he would give him all those 
things which had been set before him, to dis- 
pose of as he thought proper ; and on his grand- 
father's assenting, he began to call the various 
attendants up to the table, and to distribute the 
costly dishes to them, in return, as he said, for 
their various kindnesses to him. " This," said 
he to one, '' is for you, because you take pains 
to teach me to ride; this," to another, ''for 
you, because you gave me a javelin ; this to 
you, because you serve my grandfather well 
and faithfully ; and this to you, because you 
honor my mother." Thus he went on until he 
had distributed all that he had received, though 
he omitted, as it seemed designedly, to give 
any thing to the Sacian cup-bearer. This Sa- 
cian being an officer of high rank, of tall and 
handsome figure, and beautifully dressed, was 
the most conspicuous attendant at the feast, 
and could not, therefore, have been accidentally 
passed by. Astyages accordingly asked Cyrus 
why he had not given any thing to the Sacian 
— ^the servant whom, as he said, he liked better 
than all the others. 

''And what is the reason," asked Cyrus, in 
reply, " that this Sacian is such a favorite with 
you ?" 

6 



78 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 587 

A-ccomplishments of the cup-beartT. Cyrus mimics him 

" Have you not observedj" replied Astyages, 
" how gracefully and elegantly he pours out 
the wine for me, and then hands me the cup ?" 

The Sacian was, in fact.; uncommonly ac- 
complished in respect to the personal grace and 
dexterity for which cup-bearers in those days 
were most highly valued, and which constitutCj 
in fact, so essential a part of the qualifications 
of a master of ceremonies at a royal court in 
every age. Cyrus, however, instead of yielding 
to this argument, said, in reply, that he could 
come into the room and pour out the wine as 
well as the Sacian could do it, and he asked his 
grandfather to allow him to try. Astyages con- 
sented. Cyrus then took the goblet of wine, 
and went out. In a moment he came in again, 
stepping grandly, as he entered, in mimicry of 
the Sacian, and with a countenance of assumed 
gravity and self-importance, which imitated so 
well the air and manner of the cup-bearer as 
greatly to amuse the whole company assem- 
bled. Cyrus advanced thus toward the king, 
and presented him with the cup, imitating^ with 
the grace and dexterity natural to childhood, 
all the ceremonies which he had seen the cup- 
l)earer himself perform, except that of tasting 
the wine. The king and Mandane laughed 



B.C. 587.J Visit to Media 79 

Cyrus declines to taste the wine. Duties of a cup-bearer, 

heartily. Cyrus then, throwing off his assum- 
ed character, jumped up into his grandfather's 
lap and kissed him, and turning to the cup- 
bearer, he said, ^^ Now, Sacian, you are ruined, 
I shall get my grandfather to appoint me in 
your place. I can hand the wine as well as 
you, and without tasting it myself at all." 

" But why did you not taste it?" asked As- 
tyages; "you should have performed that part 
of the duty as well as the rest." 

It was, in fact, a very essential part of the 
duty of a cup-bearer to taste the wine that he 
offered before presenting it to the king. He 
did this, however, not by putting the cup to his 
lips, but by pouring out a little of it into the 
palm of his hand. This custom was adopted 
by these ancient despots to guard against the 
danger of being poisoned ; for such a danger 
would of course be very much diminished by 
requiring the officer who had the custody of 
the wine, and without whose knowledge no for- 
eign substance could w^ell be introduced into it, 
always to drink a portion of it himself imme- 
diately before tendering it to the king. 

To Astyages's question why he had not tasted 
the wine, Cyrus replied that he was afraid it 
was poisoned. '' What led you to imagine that 



80 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.587 

Cyms's reason for not tasting the wine. His description of a feast 

it was poisoned ?" asked his grandfather. " Be- 
cause," said Cyrus, " it was poisoned the other 
day, when you made a feast for your friends, 
on your birth-day. I knew by the effects. It 
made you all crazy. The things that you do 
not allow us boys to do, you did yourselves, 
for you were very rude and noisy ; you all 
bawled together, so that nobody could hear or 
understand what any other person said. Pres- 
ently you went to singing in a very ridiculous 
manner, and when a singer ended his song, you 
applauded him, and declared that he had sung 
admirably, though nobody had paid attention. 
You went to telling stories, too, each one of 
his own accord, without succeeding in making 
any body listen to him. Finally, you got up 
and began to dance, but it was out of all rule 
and measure ; you could not even stand erect 
and steadily. Then, you all seemed to forget 
who and what you were. The guests paid no 
regard to you as their king, but treated you in 
a very familiar and disrespectful manner, and 
you treated them in the same way ; so I thought 
that the wine that produced these effects must 
have been poisoned." 

Of course, Cyrus did not seriously mean that 
he thought the wine had been actually poison- 



B.C.587.1 Visit to Media. 81 



Cyrus's dislike of the cup-bearer. His reason for it 

ed. Ha was old enough to understand its na- 
ture and effects. He undoubtedly intended his 
reply as a playful satire upon the intemperate 
excesses of his grandfather's court. 

" But have not you ever seen such things be- 
fore ?" asked Astyages. '' Does not your father 
ever drink vs^ine until it makes him merry ?" 

''No," replied Cyrus, ''indeed he does not. 
He drinks only when he is thirsty, and then 
only enough for his thirst, and so he is not 
harmed." He then added, in a contemptuous 
tone, " He has no Sacian cup-bearer, you may 
depend, about A/m." 

"What is the reason, my son," here asked 
Mandane, " why you dislike this Sacian so 
much ?" 

"Why, every time that I want to come and 
see my grandfather," replied Cyrus, "this teaz- 
ing man always stops me, and will not let me 
come in. I wish, grandfather, you would let 
me have the rule over him just for three days." 

"Why, what would you do to him?" asked 
Astyages. 

" I would treat him as he treats me now," 

replied Cyrus. "I would stand at the door, as 

he does when I want to come in, and when he 

was coming for his dinner, I would stop hivpi 

' " P 



82 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.587 

Amusement of the guests. Cyrus becomes a greater favorite than evet. 

and say, ' You can not come in now ; he is busy 
with some men.' " 

In saying this, Cyrus imitated, in a very lu- 
dicrous manner, the gravity and dignity of the 
Sacian's air and manner. 

''Then," he continued, ''when he came to 
supper, I would say, 'He is bathing now; you 
must come some other time;' or else, 'He is 
going to sleep, and you will disturb him.' So 
T would torment him all the time, as he now 
torments me, in keeping me out when I want 
to come and see you." 

Such conversation as this, half playful, half 
earnest, of course amused Astyages and Man- 
dane very much, as well as all the other listen- 
ers. There is a certain charm in the simplicity 
and confiding frankness of childhood, when it is 
honest and sincere, which in Cyrus's case was 
heightened by his personal grace and beauty 
He became, in fact, more and more a favorite 
the longer he remained. At length, the indul- 
gence and the attentions which he received be- 
gan to produce, in some degree, their usual in- 
jurious effects. Cyrus became too talkative, 
and sometimes he appeared a little vain. Still, 
there was so much true kindness of heart, such 
consideration for the feelings of others, and so 



B.C. 586.] Visit to Media. 83 

Mandane proposes to return to Persia. 

respectful a regard for his grandfather, his moth- 
er, and his uncle, "^ that his faults were over- 
looked, and he was the life and soul of the com- 
pany in all the social gatherings which took 
place in the palaces of the king. 

At length the time arrived for Mandane to 
return to Persia. Astyages proposed that she 
should leave Cyrus in Media, to be educated 
there under his grandfather's charge. Mandane 
replied that she was willing to gratify her far- 
ther in every thing, but she thought it would 
be very hard to leave Cyrus behind, unless he 
was willing, of his own accord, to stay. Asty- 
ages then proposed the subject to Cyrus him- 
self. ''If you will stay," said he, '' the Sacian 
shall no longer have power to keep you from 
coming in to see me ; you shall come whenever 
you choose. Then, besides, you shall have the 
use of all my horses, and of as many more as 
you please, and when you go home at last you 
shall take as many as you wish with you. 

* The uncle here referred to was Mandane's brother. His 
name was Oyaxares. He was at this time a royal prince, the 
heir apparent to the throne. He figures very conspicuously 
in the subsequent portions of Xenophon's history as Astya- 
ges's successor on the throne. Herodotus does not mention 
him at all, but makes Cyrus himself the direct successor of 



84 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.584 

Cyrus consents to remain. Fears of Mandane 

Then you may have all the animals in the park 
to hunt. You can pursue them on horseback, 
and shoot them with bows and arrows, or kill 
them with javelins, as men do with wild beasts 
in the woods. I will provide boys of your own 
age to play with you, and to ride and hunt with 
you, and will have all sorts of arms made of 
suitable size for you to use ; and if there is 
any thing else that you should want at any 
time, you will only have to ask me for it, and 
I will immediately provide it." 

The pleasure of riding and of hunting in the 
park was very captivating to Cyrus's mind, and 
he consented to stay. He represented to his 
mother that it would be of great advantage to 
him, on his final return to Persia, to be a skill- 
ful and powerful horseman, as that would at 
once give him the superiority over all the Per- 
sian youths, for they were very little accustom- 
ed to ride. His mother had some fears lest, by 
too long a residence in the Median court, her 
son should acquire the luxurious habits, and 
proud and haughty manners, which would be 
constantly before him in his grandfather's ex- 
ample ; but Cyrus said that his grandfather, 
being imperious himself, required all around 
him to be submissive, and that Mandane need 



B.C. 584] Visit to Media 86 

T)eparture of Mandane. Rapid progress of Cyrua 

not fear but that he would return at last as du- 
tiful and docile as ever. It was decided, there- 
fore, that Cyrus should stay, while his mother, 
bidding her child and her father farewell, went 
back to Persia. 

After his mother was gone, Cyrus endear- 
ed himself very strongly to all persons at his 
grandfather's court by the nobleness and gener- 
osity of character which he evinced, more and 
more, as his mind was gradually developed. 
He applied himself with great diligence to ac- 
quiring the various accomplishments and arts 
then most highly prized, such as leaping, vault- 
ing, racing, riding, throwing the javelin, and 
drawing the bow. In the friendly contests 
which took place among the boys, to test their 
comparative excellence in these exercises, Cy- 
lus would challenge those whom he knew to be 
superior to himself, and allow them to enjoy 
the pleasure of victory, while he was satisfied, 
himself, with the superior stimulus to exertion 
which he derived from coming thus into com- 
parison with attainments higher than his own. 
He pressed forward boldly and ardently, under* 
taking every thing which promised to be, by 
any possibility, within his power ; and, far from 
being disconcerted and discouraged at his mis- 



86 Cyrus THE Great. [B.C. r>84 



Hunting in the park. Game becomes scarce 

takes and failures, he always joined merrily in 
the 'augh which they occasioned, and renewed 
his attempts with as much ardor and alac- 
rity as before. Thus he made great and rapid 
progress, and learned first to equal and then 
to surpass one after another of his compan- 
ions, and all without exciting any jealousy or 
envy. 

It was a great amusement both to him and 
to the other boys, his playmates, to hunt the 
animals in the park, especially the deer. The 
park was a somewhat extensive domain, but 
the animals v>^ere soon very much diminished 
by the slaughter which the boys made among 
them. Astyages endeavored to supply their 
places by procuring more. At length, how- 
ever, all the sources of supply that were con- 
veniently at hand were exhausted ; and Cyrus, 
then finding that his grandfather was put to no 
little trouble to obtain tame animals for Icim 
park, proposed, one day, that he should be al- 
lowed to go out into the forests, to hunt the 
wild beasts with the men. '^ There are ani- 
mals enough there, grandfather," said Cyrus, 
^'and I shall consider them all just as if you 
had procured them expressly for me." 

In fact, by this time Cyrus had grown up to be 



B.C. 584.] Visit to Media. 87 



Development of Cyrus's powers, both of body and mind. 

a tall and handsome young man, with strength 
and vigor sufficient, under favorable circum- 
stances, to endure the fatigues and exposures 
of real hunting. As his person had become de- 
veloped, his mind and manners, too, had under- 
gone a change. The gayety, the thoughtful- 
ness, the self-confidence, and talkative vivacity 
of his childhood had disappeared, and he was 
fast becoming reserved, sedate, deliberate, and 
cautious. He no longer entertained his grand- 
father's company by his mimicry, his repartees, 
and his childish wit. He was silent; he ob- 
served, he listened, he shrank from publicity, 
and spoke, when he spoke at all, in subdued 
and gentle tones. Instead of crowding forward 
eagerly into his grandfather's presence on all 
occasions, seasonable and unseasonable, as ho 
had done before, he now became, of his own ac- 
cord, very much afraid of occasioning trouble 
or interruption. He did not any longer need 
a Sacian to restrain him, but became, as Xen- 
ophon expresses it, a Sacian to himself, taking 
great care not to go into his grandfather's apart- 
ments without previously ascertaining that the 
king was disengaged ; so that he and the Sa- 
cian now became very great friends. 

This being the state of the case, Astyages 



88 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.584 

Hunting wild beasts. Cyrus's conversation with his attendants 

consented that Cyrus should go out with his son 
Cyaxares into the forests to hunt at the next 
opportunity. The party set out, when the time 
arrived, on horseback, the hearts of Cyrus and 
his companions bounding, when they mounted 
their steeds, with feelings of elation and pride. 
There were certain attendants and guards ap- 
pointed to keep near to Cyrus, and to help him 
in the rough and rocky parts of the country, 
and to protect him from the dangers to which, 
if left alone, he would doubtless have been ex- 
posed. Cyrus talked with these attendants, as 
they rode along, of the mode of hunting, of the 
difficulties of hunting, the characters and the 
habits of the various wild beasts, and of the 
dangers to be shunned. His attendants told 
him that the dangerous beasts were bears, lions, 
tigers, boars, and leopards ; that such animals 
as these often attacked and killed men, and that 
he must avoid them ; but that stags, wild goats, 
wild sheep, and wild asses were harmless, and 
that he could hunt such animals as they as 
much as he pleased. They told him, moreover, 
that steep, rocky, and broken ground was more 
dangerous to the huntsman than any beasts, 
however ferocious ; for riders, off their guard, 
driving impetuously over such ways, were often 



B.C. 584.] Visit to Media. 91 

Pursuit of a stag. Cyrus's danger 

thrown from their horses, or fell with them over 
precipices or into chasms, and were killed. 

Cyrus listened very attentively to these in- 
structions, with every disposition to give heed 
to them ; but when he came to the trial, he 
found that the ardor and impetuosity of the 
chase drove all considerations of prudence wholly 
from his mind. When the men got into the 
forest, those that were with Cyrus roused a 
stag, and all set off eagerly in pursuit, Cyrus 
at the head. Away went the stag over rough 
and dangerous ground. The rest of the party 
turned aside, or followed cautiously, while Cy- 
rus urged his horse forward in the wildest ex- 
citement, thinking of nothing, and seeing noth- 
ing but the stag bounding before him. The 
horse came to a chasm which he was obhged 
to leap. But the distance was too great ; he 
came down upon his knees, threw Cyrus vio- 
lently forward almost over his head, and then, 
with a bound and a scramble, recovered his feet 
and went on. Cyrus clung tenaciously to the 
horse's mane, and at length succeeded in get- 
ting back to the saddle, though, for a moment, 
his life was in the most imminent danger. Hia 
attendants were extremely terrified, though he 
himself seemed to experience no feeling but the 



92 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 584 

Cyrus's recklessness. He is reproved by his companions 

pleasurable excitement of the chase ; foi , as 
joon as the obstacle was cleared, he pressed on 
with new impetuosity after the stag, overtook 
him, and killed him with his javelin. Then, 
alighting from his horse, he stood by the side of 
his victim, to wait the coming up of the party, 
his countenance beaming with an expression 
of triumph and delight. 

His attendants, however, on their arrival, 
instead of applauding his exploit, or seeming to 
share his pleasure, sharply reproved him for his 
recklessness and daring. He had entirely disre- 
garded their instructions, and they threatened 
to report him to his grandfather. Cyrus looked 
perplexed and uneasy. The excitement and 
the pleasure of victory and success were strug- 
gling in his mind against his dread of his grand- 
father's displeasure. Just at this instant he 
heard a new halloo. Another party in the 
neighborhood had roused fresh game. All Cy- 
rus's returning sense of duty was blown at once 
to the winds. He sprang to his horse with a 
shout of wild enthusiasm, and rode off toward 
the scene of action. The game which had been 
started, a furious wild boar, just then issued 
from a thicket directly before him. Cyrus, ia- 
stead of shunning the danger, as he ought to 



B.C. 584.] Visit to Media. 93 

Cyrus kills a wild boar. He is again reproved. 

have done, in obedience to the orders of those 
to whom his grandfather had intrusted him, 
daslied on to meet the boar at full speed, and 
aimed so true a thrust with his javelin against 
the beast as to transfix him in the forehead. 
The boar fell, and lay upon the ground in dying 
struggles, while Cyrus's heart was filled with 
joy and triumph even greater than before. 

When Cyaxares came up, he reproved Cyrus 
anew for running such risks. Cyrus received 
the reproaches meekly, and then asked Cyaxa- 
res to give him the two animals that he had 
killed ; he wanted to carry them home to his 
grandfather. 

"By no means," said Cyaxares; "your grand- 
father would be very much displeased to know 
what you had done. He would not only con- 
demn you for acting thus, but he would reprove 
us too, severely, for allowing you to do so." 

"Let him punish me," said Cyrus, "if he 
wishes, after I have shown him the stag and 
the boar, and you may punish me too, if you 
think best ; but do let me show them to him." 

Cyaxares consented, and Cyrus made ar- 
rangements to have the bodies of the beasts 
and the bloody javelins carried home. Cyrus 
then presented the carcasses to his grandfather, 
7 



94 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 584 

Cyius carries his game home. Distributes it among his companicna 

saying that it was some game which he had 
taken for him. The javelins he did not exhibit 
directly, but he laid them down in a place 
where his grandfather would see them. Asty- 
ages thanked him for his presents, but he said 
lie had no such need of presents of game as to 
wish his grandson to expose himself to such im- 
minent dangers to take it. 

*^ Well, grandfather," said Cyrus, ^'if you do 
not want the meat, give it to me, and I will 
divide it among my friends." Astyages agreed 
to this, and Cyrus divided his booty among his 
companions, the boys, who had before hunted 
with him in the park. They, of course, took 
their several portions home, each one carrying 
with his share of the gift a glowing account of 
the valor and prowess of the giver. It was not 
generosity which led Cyrus thus to give away 
the fruits of his toil, but a desire to widen and 
extend his fame. 

When Cyrus was about fifteen or sixteen 
years old, his uncle Cyaxares was married, 
and, in celebrating his nuptials, he formed a 
great hunting party, to go to the frontiers be- 
tween Media and Assyria to hunt there, where 
it was said that game of all kinds was' very 
plentiful, as it usually was, in factj in those 



H.C.584.] Visn to Med'ia. 95 

Another hunting party. A plundering party. 

days, in the neighborhood of disturbed and un- 
settled frontiers. The very causes which made 
such a region as this a safe and frequented 
haunt for wild beasts, made it unsafe for men, 
and Cyaxares did not consider it prudent to 
venture on his excursion without a considerable 
force to attend him. His hunting party formed, 
therefore, quite a little army. They set out 
from home with great pomp and ceremony, and 
proceeded to the frontiers in regular organiza- 
tion and order, like a body of troops on a march. 
There was a squadron of horsemen, who were tQ 
hunt the beasts in the open parts of the forest, 
and a considerable detachment of light-armed 
footmen also, who were to rouse the game, and 
drive them out of their lurking places in the 
glens and thickets. Cyrus accompanied this 
expedition. 

When Cyaxares reached the frontiers, he 
concluded, instead of contenting himself and his 
party with hunting wild beasts, to make an 
incursion for plunder into the Assyrian terri- 
tory, that being, as Zenophon expresses it, a 
more noble enterprise than the other. The no- 
bleness, it seems, consisted in the greater immi- 
nence of the danger, in having to contend with 
armed men instead of ferocious brutes, and in 



96 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 584 

Cyrus departs for Media. Parting presente. 

the higher value of the prizes which they would 
obtain in case of success. The idea of there be- 
ing any injustice or w^rong in this wanton and 
unprovoked aggression upon the territories of a 
neighboring nation seems not to have entered 
the mind either of the royal robber himself or 
of his historian. 

Cyrus distinguished himself very conspicu- 
ously in this expedition, as he had done in the 
hunting excursion before ; and when, at length, 
this nuptial party returned home, loaded with 
booty, the tidings of Cyrus's exploits went to 
Persia. Cambyses thought that if his son was 
beginning to take part, as a soldier, in military 
campaigns, it was time for him to be recalled. 
He accordingly sent for him, and Cyrus began 
to make preparations for his return. 

The day of his departure was a day of great 
sadness and sorrow among all his companions 
in Media, and, in fact, among all the members 
of his grandfather's household. They accom- 
panied him for some distance on his way, and 
took leave of him, at last, with much regret 
and many tears. Cyrus distributed among 
them, as they left him, the various articles of 
value which he possessed, such as his arms, 
and ornaments of various kinds, and costly ar- 



B.C. 584] Visit to Media. 97 

The presents returned. Cyrus sends them back agaiiiv 

tides of dress. He gave his Median robe, at 
last, to a certain youth whom he said he loved 
the best of all. The name of this special fa- 
vorite was Araspes. As these his friends part- 
ed from him, Cyrus took his leave of them, one 
by one, as they returned, with many proofs of 
his affection for them, and with a very sad and 
heavy heart. 

The boys and young men who had received 
these presents took them home, but they were 
so valuable, that they or their parents, suppos- 
ing that they were given under a momentary 
impulse of feeling, and that they ought to bo 
returned, sent them all to Astyages. Astya- 
ges sent them to Persia, to be restored to Cy- 
rus. Cyrus sent them all back again to his 
grandfather, with a request that he would dis- 
tribute them again to those to whom Cyrus 
had originally given them, ''which," said he, 
''grandfather, you must do, if you wish me 
ever to come to Media again with pleasure and 
not with shame." 

Such is the story which Xenophon gives of 
Cyrus's visit to Media, and in its romantic and 
incredible details it is a specimen of the whole 
narrative which this author has given of his he- 
ro's life. It is not, at the present day, supposed 
G 



98 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 584. 

Character of Xenophon's narrative. Its trustworthiness. 

that these, and the many similar stories with 
which Xenophon's books are filled, are true histo- 
ry. It is not even thought that Xenophon real- 
ly intended to offer his narrative as history, but 
rather as an historical romance — a fiction found- 
ed on fact, written to amuse the warriors of his 
times, and to serve as a vehicle for inculcating 
such principles of philosophy, of morals, and of 
military science as seemed to him worthy of 
the attention of his countrymen. The story 
has no air of reality about it from beginning to 
end, but only a sort of poetical fitness of one 
part to another, much more like the contrived 
coincidences of a romance writer than like the 
real events and transactions of actual life. A 
very large portion of the work consists of long 
discourses on military, moral, and often meta- 
physical philosophy, made by generals in coun- 
cil, or commanders in conversation with each 
other when going into battle. The occurrences 
and incidents out of which, these conversations 
arise always take place just as they are wanted, 
and arrange themselves in a manner to produce 
the highest dramatic effect ; like the stag, the 
broken ground, and the wild boar in Cyrus's 
hunting, wliich came, one after another, to fur- 
nish the hero with poetical occasions for display- 



B.C. 584] Visit to Media. 99 

Character of Cyrus as given by Xenophon. 

ing his juvenile bravery, and to produce the 
rrtost picturesque and poetical grouping of in- 
cidents and events. Xenophon too, like other 
\\Titers of romances, makes his hero a model of 
military virtue and magnanimity, according to 
the ideas of the times. He displays superhu- 
man sagacity in circumventing his foes, he per- 
forms prodigies of valor, he forms the most sen- 
timental attachments, and receives with a ro- 
mantic confidence the adhesions of men who 
come over to his side from the enemy, and who, 
being traitors to old friends, would seem to be 
only worthy of suspicion and distrust in being 
received by new ones. Every thing, however, 
results well ; all whom he confides in prove 
worthy ; all w^hom he distrusts prove base. 
All his friends are generous and noble, and all 
his enemies treacherous and cruel. Every 
prediction which he makes is verified, and all 
his enterprises succeed ; or if, in any respect, 
there occurs a partial failure, the incident is 
always of such a character as to heighten the 
impression which is made by the final and tri- 
umphant success. 

Such being the character of Xenophon's tale, 
or rather drama, w^e shall content ourselves, 
after giving this specimen of it, with add\ng, 



100 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 584. 

Herodotus more trustworthy than Xenophon. 

in some subsequent chapters, a few other scenes 
and incidents drawn from his narrative. In the 
mean time, in relating the great leading events 
of Cyrus's life, we shall take Herodotus for our 
guide, by following his more sober, and, prob- 
ably, more trustworthy reocrd. 



B.C.718.] Crcesus. 101 

The wealth of Croesus. The Mermnad* 



Chapter IV. 

C R (E s u s. 

rriHE scene of our narrative must now be 
-*- changed, for a time, from Persia and Me- 
dia, in the East, to Asia Minor, in the West, 
where the great Croesus, originally King of 
Lydia, was at this time gradually extending 
his empire along the shores of the ^gean Sea. 
The name of Croesus is associated in the minds 
of men with the idea of boundless wealth, the 
phrase ^' as rich as Croesus" having been a com- 
mon proverb in all the modern languages of 
Europe for many centuries. It was to this 
Croesus, king of Lydia, whose story we are 
about to relate, that the proverb alludes. 

The country of Lydia, over 'which this fa- 
mous sovereign originally ruled, was in the 
western part of Asia Minor, bordering on the 
iEgean Sea. Croesus himself belonged to a 
dynasty, or race of kings, called the Mermna- 
dae. The founder of this line was Gyges, who 
displaced the dynasty which preceded him and 
established his own by a revolution effected in 



102 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 718. 

Origin of the Mermnadean dynasty. Candaules and Gygea. 

a very remarkable manner. The circumstances 
were as follows : 

The name of the last monarch of the old dy- 
nasty — the one, namely, whom Gyges displac- 
ed — was Candaules. Gyges was a household 
servant in Candaules's family — a sort of slave, 
in fact, and yet, as such slaves often were in 
those rude days, a personal favorite and boon 
companion of his master. Candaules was a dis- 
solute and unprincipled tyrant. He had, how- 
ever, a very beautiful and modest wife, whose 
name was Nyssia. Candaules was very proud 
of the beauty of his queen, and was always ex- 
tolling it, though, as the event proved, he could 
not have felt for her any true and honest affec- 
tion. In some of his revels with Gyges, when 
he was boasting of Nyssia's charms, he said 
that the beauty of her form and figure, when 
unrobed, was even more exquisite than that of 
her features ; alid, finally, the monster, growing 
more and more excited, and having rendered 
himself still more of a brute than he was by 
nature, by the influence of wine, declared that 
Gyges should see for himself. He would con- 
ceal him, he said, in the queen's bed-chamber, 
while she was undressing for the night. Gy- 
ges remonstrated very earnestly against this 



B.C. 718.] CR(Ests. 103 

oifamous proposal of Candaules. RemonstTAnce of Gyges. 

proposal. It would be doing the innocent 
queen, he said, a great wrong. He assured the 
king, too, that he believed fully all that he said 
about Nyssia's beauty, without applying such 
a test, and he begged him not to insist upon a 
proposal with which it would be criminal to 
comply. 

The king, however, did insist upon it, and 
Gyges was compelled to yield. Whatever is 
offered as a favor by a half-intoxicated despot 
to an humble inferior, it would be death to re- 
fuse. Gyges allowed himself to be placed be- 
hind a half-opened door of the king's apartment, 
when the kins: retired to it for the nis^ht. There 
he was to remain while the queen began to un 
robe herself for retiring, with a strict injunction 
to withdraw at a certain time which the king 
designated, and with the utmost caution, so as 
to prevent being observed by the queen. Gy- 
ges did as he was ordered. The beautiful 
queen laid aside her garments and made her 
toilet for the night with all the quiet compo- 
sure and confidence which a woman might be 
expected to feel while in so sacred and inviola- 
ble a sanctuary, and in the presence and under 
the guardianship of her husband. Just as she 
was about to retire to rest, some movement 



104 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 718. 

Nyssia's suppressed indignation. She sends for Gyge^ 

alarmed her. It was Gryges going away. She 
saw hhn. She instantly understood the case. 
She was overwhelmed with indignation and 
shame. She, how^ever, suppressed and conceal- 
ed her emotions ; she spoke to Candaules in her 
usual tone of voice, and he, on his part, secret- 
ly rejoiced in the adroit and successful manner 
in which his little contrivance had been carried 
into execution. 

The next morning Nyssia sent, by some of 
her confidential messengers, for Gyges to come 
to her. He came, with some forebodings, per- 
haps, but without any direct reason for believ- 
ing that what he had done had been discovered. 
Nyssia, however, informed him that she knew 
all, and that either he or her husband must die. 
Gyges earnestly remonstrated against this de- 
cision, and supplicated forgiveness. He ex- 
plained the circumstances under which the act 
had been performed, which seemed, at least so 
far as he was concerned, to palliate the deed. 
The queen was, however, fixed and decided. 
It was wholly inconsistent with her ideas of 
womanly delicacy that there should be two liv- 
ing men who had both been admitted to her 
bedchamber. " The king," she said, " by what 
he has done, has forfeited his claims to me and 



B.C. 718.] Crojsus 105 

Candaules is assassinated. Gyges succeed*.. 

resigned me to you. If you will kill him, seize 
his kingdom, and make me your wife, all shall 
be well ; otherwise you must prepare to die." 

From this hard alternative, Gyges chose to 
assassinate the king, and to make the lovely 
object before him his own. The excitement 
of indignation and resentment which glowed 
upon her cheek, and with which her bosom was 
heaving, made her more beautiful than ever. 
^'How shall our purpose be accomplished?" 
asked Gyges. ^'The deed," she replied, '^ shall 
be perpetrated in the very place which was the 
scene of the dishonor done to me. I will admit 
you into our bedchamber in my turn, and you 
shall kill Candaules in his bed." 

When night came, Nyssia stationed Gyges 
again behind the same door where the king had 
placed him. He had a dagger in his hand. He 
waited there till Candaules was asleep. Then, 
at a signal given him by the queen, he entered, 
and stabbed the husband in his bed. He mar- 
ried Nyssia, and possessed himself of the king- 
dom. After this, he and his successors reigned 
for many years over the kingdom of Lydia, con- 
stituting the dynasty of the Mermnadse, from 
which, in process of time, King Croesus de- 
3cended. 



i06 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.565. 

The Lydian power extended. The wars of Alyattes, 

The successive sovereigns of this dynasty 
gradually extended the Lydian power over the 
countries around them. The name of Croesus's 
father, who was the monarch that immediately 
preceded him, was Alyattes. Alyattes waged 
war toward the southward, into the territories 
of the city of Miletus. He made annual in- 
cursions into the country of the Milesians for 
plunder, always taking care, however, while he 
seized all the movable property that he could 
find, to leave the villages and towns, and all the 
hamlets of the laborers without injury. The 
reason for this was, that he did not wish to 
drive away the population, but to encourage 
them to remain and cultivate their lands, so 
that there might be new flocks and herds, and 
new stores of corn, and fruit, and wine, for him 
to plunder from in succeeding years. At last, 
on one of these marauding excursions, some 
fires which were accidentally set in a field 
spread into a neighboring town, and destroyed, 
among other buildings, a temple consecrated to 
Minerva. After this, Alyattes found himself 
quite unsuccessful in all his expeditions and 
campaigns. He sent to a famous oracle to ask 
the reason. 

^^You can expect no more success," replied 



B.C. 565.] Crcesus. 107 

Destruction of Minerva's temple. Stratagem of Thrasybulus. 

the oracle, ''until you rebuild the temple that 
you have destroyed." 

But how could he rebuild the temple ? The 
site was in the enemy's country. His men 
could not build an edifice and defend themselves, 
at the same time, from the attacks of their foes. 
He concluded to demand a truce of the Mile- 
sians until the reconstruction should be com- 
pleted, and he sent embassadors to Miletus, ac- 
cordingly, to make the proposal. 

The proposition for a truce resulted in a per- 
manent peace, by means of a very singular 
stratagem which Thrasybulus, the king of Mi- 
letus, practiced upon Alyattes. It seems that 
Alyattes supposed that Thrasybulus had been 
reduced to great distress by the loss and de- 
struction of provisions and stores in various 
parts of the country, and that he would soon 
be forced to yield up his kingdom. This was, 
in fact, the case ; but Thrasybulus determined 
to disguise his real condition, and to destroy, 
by an artifice, all the hopes which Alyattes had 
formed from the supposed scarcity in the city. 
When the herald whom Alyattes sent to Mile- 
tus w^as about to arrive, Thrasybulus collected 
all the corn, and grain, and other provisions 
which he could command, and had thern heaped 



108 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 5C5. 

Success of the stratagem. A treaty of peace concluded 

up in a public part of the city, where the herald 
was to be receivedj so as to present indications 
of the most ample abundance of food. He col- 
lected a large body of his soldiers, too, and gave 
them leave to feast themselves without restric- 
tion on what he had thus gathered. Accord- 
ingly, when the herald came in to deliver his 
message, he found the whole city given up to 
feasting and revelry, and he saw stores of pro- 
visions at hand, which were in process of being 
distributed and consumed with the most prod- 
igal profusion. The herald reported this state 
of things to Alyattes. Alyattes then gave up 
all hopes of reducing Miletus by famine, and 
made a permanent peace, binding himself to its 
stipulations by a very solemn treaty. To cel- 
ebrate the event, too, he built two temples to 
Minerva instead of one. 

A story is related by Herodotus of a remark- 
able escape made by Arion at sea, which oc- 
curred during the reign of Alyattes, the father 
of Croesus. We will give the story as Herod« 
otus relates it, leaving the reader to judge for 
himself whether such tales were probably true, 
or were only introduced by Herodotus into his 
narrative to make his histories more entertain- 
ing to the Grecian assemblies to whom he read 



B.C. 565.] Crcesus. 109 

Story of ArioQ and the dolphin. ITie alternative. 

them. Arion was a celebrated singer. He had 
been making a tour in Sicily and in the south- 
ern part of Italy, where he had acquired con- 
siderable wealth, and he was now returning to 
Corinth. He embarked at Tarentum, which is 
a city in the southern part of Italy, in a Co- 
rinthian vessel, and put to sea. When the sail- 
ors found that they had him in their power, they 
determined to rob and murder him. They ac- 
cordingly seized his gold and silver, and then 
told him that he might either kill himself or 
jump overboard into the sea. One or the other 
he must do. If he would kill himself on board 
the vessel, they would give him decent burial 
when they reached the shore. 

Arion seemed at first at a loss how to decide 
in so hard an alternative. At length he told 
the sailors that he would throw himself into the 
sea, but he asked permission to sing them one 
of his songs before he took the fatal plunge. 
They consented. He accordingly went into the 
cabin, and spent some time in dressing himself 
magnificently in the splendid and richly-orna- 
mented robes in which he had been accustom- 
ed to appear upon the stage. At length he re- 
appeared, and took his position on the side of 
the ship, with his harp in his hand. He sang 
8 



110 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 560, 



Arion leaps into the sea. He is preserved by a dolphin, 

his song, accompanying himself upon the harp, 
and then, when he had finished his perform- 
ance, he leaped into the sea. The seamen di- 
vided their plunder and pursued their voyage. 
Arion, however, instead of being drowned, 
was taken up by a dolphin that had been charm- 
ed by his song, and was borne by him to Tse- 
narus, which is the promontory formed by the 
southern extremity of the Peloponnesus. There 
Arion landed in safety. From Tsenarus he pro- 
ceeded to Corinth, wearing the same dress in 
which he had plunged into the sea. On his ar- 
rival, he complained to the king of the crime 
which the sailors had committed, and narrated 
his wonderful escape. The king did not be- 
lieve him, but put him in prison to wait until 
the ship should arrive. "When at last the ves- 
sel came, the king summoned the sailors into 
his presence, and asked them if they knew any 
thing of Arion. Arion himself had been pre- 
viously placed in an adjoining room, ready to 
be called in as soon as his presence was requir- 
ed. The mariners answered to the question 
which the king put to them, that they had seen 
Arion in Tarentum, and that they had left him 
there. Arion was then himself called in. His 
sudden appearance, clothed as he was in the 



B.C.560.] Cr(esus. Ill 

Death of Alyattes. Succession of Croesus 

same dress in which the mariners had seen him 
leap into the sea, so terrified the conscience- 
stricken criminals, that they confessed their 
guilt, and were all punished by the king. A 
marble statue, representing a man seated upon 
a dolphin, was erected at Tsenarus to commem- 
orate this event, where it remained for centu- 
ries afterward, a monument of the wonder which 
Arion had achieved. 

At length Alyattes died and Croesus suc- 
ceeded him. Croesus extended still further the 
power and fame of the Lydian empire, and was 
for a time very successful in all his military 
schemes. By looking upon the map, the read- 
er will see that the ^gean Sea, along the 
coasts of Asia Minor, is studded with islands. 
These islands were in those days very fertile 
and beautiful, and were densely inhabited by a 
commercial and maritime people, who possessed 
a multitude of ships, and were very powerful in 
all the adjacent seas. Of course their land 
forces were very few, whether of horse or of 
foot, as the habits and manners of such a sea- 
going people were all foreign to modes of war- 
fare required in land campaigns. On the sea, 
however, these islanders were supreme. 

Croesus formed a scheme for attacking these 



112 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 560. 

Pl&ns of Croesus for subjugating the islands. 

islands and bringing them under his sway, and 
he began to make preparations for building and 
equipping a fleet for this purpose, though, of 
course, his subjects were as unused to the sea 
as the nautical islanders were to military oper- 
ations on the land. While he was making 
these preparations, a certain philosopher was 
visiting at his court : he was one of the seven 
wise men of Greece, who had recently come 
from the Peloponnesus. Croesus asked him if 
there was any news from that country. ^'I 
heard," said the philosopher, '^that the inhab- 
itants of the islands were preparing to invade 
your dominions with a squadron of ten thou- 
sand horse." Croesus, who supposed that the 
philosopber was serious, appeared greatly pleas- 
ed and elated at the prospect of his sea-faring 
enemies attempting to meet him as a body of 
cavalry. " No doubt," said the philosopher, 
after a little pause, ''you would be pleased to 
have those sailors attempt to contend with you 
on horseback ; but do you not suppose that they 
will be equally pleased at the prospect of en- 
countering Lydian landsmen on the ocean ?" 

Croesus perceived the aosurdity of his plan, 
and abandoned the attempt to execute it. 

Croesus acquired the enormous wealth for 



B.C.560.J Croesus. 113 

The golden sands of the Pactolus. The story of Midas. 

which he was so celebrated from the goldei\ 
sands of the River Pactolus, which flowed 
through his kingdom. The river brought the 
particles of gold, in grains, and globules, and 
flakes, from the mountains above, and the ser« 
vants and slaves of Croesus washed the sands, 
and thus separated the heavier deposit of the 
metal. In respect to the origin of the gold, 
however, the people who lived upon the banks 
of the river had a different explanation from the 
j<imple one that the waters brought down the 
treasure from the mountain ravines. They had 
a story that, ages before, a certain king, named 
Midas, rendered some service to a god, who, in 
return, offered to grant him any favor that he 
might ask. Midas asked that the power might 
be granted him to turn whatever he touched 
into gold. The power was bestowed, and Mi- 
das, after changing various objects around him 
into gold until he was satisfied, began to find 
his new acquisition a source of great inconven- 
ience and danger. His clothes, his food, and 
even his drink, were changed to gold when he 
touched them. He found that he was about to 
starve in the midst of a w^orld of treasure, and 
he implored the god to take back the fatal gift. 
The god directed him to go and bathe in the 
H 



114 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 560* 

Wealth and renown of Croesus. Visit of Soloa. 

Pactolus, and he should be restored to his fo**- 
mer condition. Midas did so, and was saved, 
but not without transforming a great portion of 
the sands of the stream into gold during the 
process of his restoratjjn. 

Croesus thus attained quite speedily to a very 
high degree of wealth, prosperity, and renown. 
His dominions were widely extended; his pal- 
aces were full of treasures; his court was a 
scene of unexampled magnificence and splen- 
dor. While in the enjoyment of all this gran- 
deur, he was visited by Solon, the celebrated 
Grecian law-giver, who was traveling in that 
part of the world to observe the institutions and 
customs of different states. Croesus received 
Solon with great distinction, and showed him 
all his treasures. At last he one day said to 
Iiim, '' You have traveled, Solon, over many 
countries, and have studied, with a great deal 
of attention and care, all that you have seen. 
I have heard great commendations of your wis- 
dom, and I should like very much to know who, 
of all the persons you have ever known, has 
seemed to you most fortunate and happy.'^ 

The king had no doubt that the answer would 
be that he himself was the one. 

^' I think," replied Solon, after a pause, " that 



Criesus. 115 

CrcBSUs and Solon. What constitutes happiness. 

Tellus, an Athenian citizen, was the most for- 
tunate and happy man I have ever known." 

^'Tellus, an Athenian!" repeated Crcesus, 
surprised. '' What was there in his case which 
you consider so remarkable ?" 

^^He was a peaceful and quiet citizen of 
Athens," said Solon. ''He lived happily with 
his family, under a most excellent government, 
enjoying for many years all the pleasures of do- 
mestic life. He had several amiable and vir- 
tuous children, who all grew up to maturity, 
and loved and honored their parents as long as 
they lived. At length, when his life was draw- 
ing toward its natural termination, a war broke 
out with a neighboring nation, and Tellus went 
with the army to defend his country. He aided 
very essentially in the defeat of the enemy, but 
fell, at last, on the field of battle. His coun- 
trymen greatly lamented his death. They 
buried him publicly where he fell, with every 
circumstance of honor." 

Solon was proceeding to recount the domes- 
tic and social virtues of Tellus, and the peace- 
ful happiness which he enjoyed as the result 
of them, when Croesus interrupted him to ask 
who, next to Tellus, he considered the most 
fortunate and happy man. 



116 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 545. 

Cleobis and Bito. Croesus displeased with Solon. 

Solon, after a little farther reflection, men- 
tioned two brothers, Cleobis and Bito, private 
persons among the Greeks, who were celebrated 
lor their great personal strength, and also for 
their devoted attachment to their mother. He 
related to Croesus a story of a feat they per- 
formed on one occasion, when their mother, at 
the celebration of some public festival, was 
going some miles to a temple, in a car to be 
drawn by oxen. There happened to be some 
delay in bringing the oxen, while the mother 
was waiting in the car. As the oxen did not 
come, the young men took hold of the pole of 
the car themselves, and walked off at their ease 
with the load, amid the acclamations of the spec- 
tators, while their mother's heart w^as filled with 
exultation and pride. 

Croesus here interrupted the philosopher 
again, and expressed his surprise that he should 
place private men, like those whom he had 
named, who possessed no wealth, or prominence, 
or power, before a monarch like him, occupying 
a station of such high authority and renown, 
and possessing such boundless treasures. 

''Croesus," replied Solon, ''I see you now, 
indeed, at the height of human power and gran- 
deur You reign supreme over many nations, 



B.C. 545.] Cr<esus. 117 

Solon treated with neglect. The two sons of Cra38ua 

and you are in the enjoyment of unbounded 
affluence, and every species of luxury and splen- 
dor. I can notj however, decide v^hether I am 
to consider you a fortunate and happy man, 
until I know how all this is to end. If we con- 
sider seventy years as the allotted period of life, 
you have a large portion of your existence yet 
to come, and we can not with certainty pro- 
nounce any man happy till his life is ended." 

This conversation with Solon made a deep 
impression upon Croesus's mind, as was after- 
ward proved in a remarkable manner ; but the 
impression was not a pleasant or a salutary 
one. The king, however, suppressed for the 
time the resentment which the presentation of 
these unwelcome truths awakened within him, 
though he treated Solon afterward with indif- 
ference and neglect, so that the philosopher soon 
found it best to withdraw. 

Croesus had two sons. One was deaf and 
dumb. The other was a young man of uncom- 
mon promise, and, of course, as he only could 
succeed his father in the government of the 
kingdom, he was naturally an object of the 
king's particular attention and care. His name 
was Atys. He was unmarried. He was, hov>^« 
ever, old enough to liave the command of a con- 



118 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 545 

The king's dream. Arrival of Adrastus 

siderable body of troops, and he had often distin- 
guished himself in the Lydian campaigns. One 
night the king had a dream about Atys which 
greatly alarmed him. He dreamed that his 
son was destined to die of a wound received 
from the point of an iron spear. The king was 
made very uneasy by this ominous dream. He 
determined at once to take every precaution in 
his power to avert the threatened danger. He 
immediately detached Atys from his command 
in the army, and made provision for his mar- 
riage. He then very carefully collected all 
the darts, javelins, and every other iron-pointed 
weapon that he could find about the palace, and 
caused them to be deposited carefully in a se- 
cure place, where there could be no danger even 
of an accidental injury from them. 

About that time there appeared at the court 
of Croesus a stranger from Phrygia, a neigh- 
boring state, who presented himself at the pal- 
ace and asked for protection. He was a prince 
of the royal family of Phrygia, and his name 
was Adrastus. He had had the misfortune, 
by some unhappy accident, to kill his brother ; 
his father, in consequence of it, had banished 
him from his native land, and he was now home- 
less, friendless, and destitute. 



B.C. 545.] Crcesus. 119 

The wild boar. Precautions of Croesus. 

Croesus received him kindly. '' Your family 
have alv^ays been my friends," said he, ^'and I 
am glad of the opportunity to make some re- 
turn by extending my protection to any member 
of it suffering misfortune. You shall reside in 
my palace, and all your wants shall be supplied. 
Come in, and forget the calamity which has 
befallen you, instead ofdistressing yourself with 
it as if it had been a crime." 

Thus Croesus received the unfortunate Adras- 
tus into his household. After the prince had 
been domiciliated in his new home for some 
time, messengers came from Mysia, a neighbor- 
ing state, saying that a wild boar of enormous 
size and unusual ferocity had come down from 
the mountains, and was lurking in the cultivated 
country, in thickets and glens, from which, at 
night, he made great havoc among the flocks 
and herds, and asking that Croesus would send 
his son, with a band of hunters and a pack of 
dogs, to help them destroy the common enemy 
Croesus consented immediately to send the doga 
and the men, but he said that he could not send 
his son. ^'My son," he added, ''has been lately 
married, and his time and attention are em- 
ployed about other things." 

When, however, Atys himself heard of this 



120 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 545. 

Remonstrance of Atys. Explanation of CrcBsus. 

reply, he remonstrated very earnestly against 
it, and begged his father to allow him to go. 
''What will the world think of me," said he, 
''if I shut myself up to these effeminate pur- 
suits and enjoyments, and shun those dangers 
and toils which other men consider it their 
highest honor to share ? What will my fellow- 
citizens think of me, and how shall I appear in 
the eyes of my wife ? She will despise me." 

CrcEsus then explained to his son the reason 
why he had been so careful to avoid exposing 
him to danger. He related to him the dream 
which had alarmed him. "It is on that ac- 
count," said he, "that I am so anxious about 
you. You are, in fact, my only son, for your 
speechless brother can never be my heir." 

Atys said, in reply, that he was not surprised, 
under those circumstances, at his father's anx- 
iety ; but he maintained that this was a case 
to which his caution could not properly apply. 
"You dreamed," he said, "that I should be 
killed by a weapon pointed with iron; but a 
boar has no such weapon. If the dream had 
portended that I was to perish by a tusk or a 
tooth, you might reasonably have restrained me 
from going to hunt a wild beast; but iron-point- 
ed instruments are the weapons of men, and we 



B.C. 545.] Cr(esus. 121 

Atys joins the expedition. H^ is killed by Adrastus. 

are not going, in this expedition, to contend 
with men." 

The king, partly convinced, perhaps, by tho 
arguments which Atys offered, and partly over- 
borne by the urgency of his request, finally con- 
sented to his request and allowed him to go. 
He consigned him, however, to the special care 
of Adrastus, who was likewise to accompany 
the expedition, charging Adrastus to keep con- 
stantly by his side, and to watch over him with 
the utmost vigilance and fidelity. 

The band of huntsmen was organized, the 
dogs prepared, and the train departed. Very 
soon afterward, a messenger came back from 
the hunting ground, breathless, and with a coun- 
tenance of extreme concern and terror, bring- 
ing the dreadful tidings that Atys was dead. 
Adrastus himself had killed him. In the ardor 
of the chase, while the huntsmen had sur- 
rounded the boar, and were each intent on his 
own personal danger while in close combat with 
euch a monster, and all were hurling darts and 
javelins at their ferocious foe, the spear of 
Adrastus missed its aim, and entered the body 
of the unhappy prince. He bled to death on 
the spot. 

Soon after the messenger had made known 



122 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 545. 

Anguish of Adrastus. Burial of A tys. 

these terrible tidings, the hunting train, trans- 
formed now into a funeral procession, appeared, 
bearing the dead body of the king's son, and 
followed by the wretched Adrastus himself, who 
was wringing his hands, and crying out inces- 
santly in accents and exclamations of despair. 
He beo:o:ed the kins: to kill him at once, over 
the body of his son, and thus put an end to the 
unutterable agony that he endured. This sec- 
ond calamity was more, he said, than he could 
bear. He had killed before his own brother, 
and now he had murdered the son of his great- 
est benefactor and friend. 

Cr(ESus, though overwhelmed with anguish, 
was disarmed of all resentment at witnessing 
Adrastus's suffering. He endeavored to soothe 
and quiet the agitation which the unhappy man 
endured, but it was in vain. Adrastus could 
not be calmed. Croesus then ordered the body 
of his son to be buried with proper honors. The 
funeral services were performed with great and 
solemn ceremonies, and when the body was in- 
terred, the household of Croesus returned to tho 
palace, which was now, in spite of all its splen- 
dor, shrouded in gloom. That night — -at mid- 
night — Adrastus, finding his mental anguish 
insupportable, retired from his apartment to 



B.C. 545.] ■ Cr(esus. 123 

Adrastus kills himself. Grief of CroBsus. 

the place where Atys had been buried, and 
killed himself over the grave. 

Solon was wise in saying that he could not 
tell whether wealth and grandeur were to be 
accounted as happiness till he saw how they 
would end. Croesus was plunged into incon- 
solable grief, and into extreme dejection and 
misery for a period of two years, in consequence 
of this calamity, and yet this calamity was only 
the beginning of the end. 



124 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 5G0. 

Change in the character of Cyrus. His ambitioiit 



Chapter V. 
Accession of Cyrus to the Throne. 

WHILE Croesus had thus, on his side of 
the River Halys — which was the stream 
that marked the boundary between the Lydian 
empire on the west and the Persian and Assyr- 
ian dominions on the east — ^been employed in 
building up his grand structure of outward 
magnificence and splendor, and in contending, 
within, against an overwhelming tide of domes- 
tic misery and woe, great changes had taken 
place in the situation and prospects of Cyrus. 
From being an artless and generous-minded 
child, he had become a calculating, ambitious, 
and aspiring man, and he was preparing to take 
his part in the great public contests and strug- 
gles of the day, with the same eagerness for 
self-aggrandizement, and the same unconcern 
for the welfare and happiness of others, which 
always characterizes the epirit of ambition and 
love of power. 

Although it is by no means certain that what 
Xenophon relates of his visit to his grandfather 



B.C. 560.] Accession. 125 



Capriciousness /f Astyages. 



Astyages is meant for a true narrative of facts, 
it is not at all iniprobable that such a visit 
might have been made, and that occurrences, 
somewhat similar, at least, to those which his 
narrative records, may have taken place. It 
may seem strange to the reader that a man who 
should, at one time, wish to put his grandchild 
to death, should, at another, be disposed to treat 
him with such a profusion of kindness and at- 
tention. There is nothing, however, really ex- 
traordinary in this. Nothing is more fluctuat- 
ing than the caprice of a despot. Man, accus- 
tomed from infancy to govern those around him 
by his own impetuous will, never learns self- 
control. He gives himself up to the dominion 
of the passing animal emotions of the hour. It 
may be jealousy, it may be revenge, it may be 
parental fondness, it may be hate, it may be 
love — whatever the feeling is that the various 
incidents of life, as they occur, or the influ- 
ences, irritating or exhilarating, which are pro- 
duced by food or wine, awaken in his mind, he 
follows its impulse blindly and without reserve. 
He loads a favorite with kindness and caresses 
at one hour, and directs his assassination tho 
next. He imagines that his infant grandchild 
is to become his rival, and he deliberately or- 
9 



126 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.56U, 

Cyrus makes great progress in mental and personal accompHshmentfi, 

ders him to be left in a gloomy forest alone, to 
die of cold and hunger. When the imaginary 
danger has passed away, he seeks amusement 
in making the same grandchild his plaything, 
and overwhelms him with favors bestowed sole- 
ly for the gratification of the giver, under the 
influence of an affection almost as purely ani* 
mal as that of a lioness for her young. 

Favors of such a sort can awaken no perma- 
nent gratitude in any heart, and thus it is quite 
possible that Cyrus might have evinced, during 
the simple and guileless days of his childhood, 
a deep veneration and affection for his grand- 
father, and yet, in subsequent years, when he 
had arrived at full maturity, have learned to 
regard him simply in the light of a great polit- 
ical potentate, as likely as any other potentate 
around him to become his rival or his enemy. 

This was, at all events, the result. Cyrus, 
on his return to Persia, grew rapidly in strength 
and stature, and soon became highly distin^ 
guished for his personal grace, his winning 
manners, and for the various martial accom- 
plishments which he had acquired in Media, 
and in which he excelled almost all his compan- 
ions. He gained, as such princes always do, a 
vast ascendency over the minds of all around 



B.C. 560.] Accession. 127 

Harpagus's plans for revenge. Suspicions of Astyages. 

him. As he advanced toward maturity, his 
mind passed from its interest in games, and 
hunting, and athletic sports, to plans of war, of 
conquest, and of extended dominion. 

In the mean time, Harpagus, though he had, 
at the time when he endured the horrid punish- 
ment which Astyages inflicted upon him, ex- 
pressed no resentment, still he had secretly felt 
an extreme indignation and anger, and he had 
now, for fifteen years, been nourishing covert 
schemes and plans for revenge. He remained 
all this time in the court of Astyages, and was 
apparently his friend. He was, however, in 
heart a most bitter and implacable enemy. He 
was looking continually for a plan or prospect 
which should promise some hope of affording 
him his long-desired revenge. His eyes were 
naturally turned toward Cyrus. He kept up a 
communication with him so far as it was pos- 
sible, for Astyages watched very closely what 
passed between the two countries, being always 
suspicious of plots against his government and 
crown. Harpagus, however, contrived to evade 
this vigilance in some degree. He made con- 
tinual reports to Cyrus of the tyranny and mis- 
government of Astyages, and of the defenseless- 
uess of the realm of Media, and he endeavored 



128 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.560. 

Condition of Persia. Discontent in Media 

to stimulate his rising ambition to the desire of 
one day possessing for himself both the Median 
and Persian throne. 

In fact, Persia was not then independent of 
Media. It was more or less connected with the 
government of Astyages, so that Cambyses, the 
chief ruler of Persia, Cyrus's father, is called 
sometimes a king and sometimes a satrap^ 
which last title is equivalent to that of viceroy 
or governor general. Whatever his true and 
proper title may have been, Persia was a Me- 
dian dependency, and Cyrus, therefore, in form- 
ing plans for gaining possession of the Median 
throne, would consider himself as rather endeav- 
oring to rise to the supreme command in his 
own native country, than as projecting any 
scheme for foreign conquest. 

Harpagus, too, looked upon the subject in the 
same light. Accordingly, in pushing forward 
his plots toward their execution, he operated in 
Media as well as Persia. He ascertained, by 
diligent and sagacious, but by very covert in- 
quiries, who were discontented and ill at ease 
under the dominion of Astyages, and by sympa- 
thizing with and encouraging them, he increas- 
ed their discontent and insubmission. When- 
ever Astyages, in the exercise of his tyranny, 



B.C. 560.] Accession. 129 

E^roceedingg of Harpajfus, Hia deportment toward Astyages 

inflicted an injury upon a powerful subject, 
Harpagus espoused the cause of the injured 
man, condemned, with him, the intolerable op- 
pression of the king, and thus fixed and perpet- 
uated his enmity. At the same time, he took 
pains to collect and to disseminate among the 
Medes all the information which he could ob- 
tain favorable to Cyrus, in respect to his talents, 
his character, and his just and generous spirit, 
so that, at length, the ascendency of Astyages, 
through the instrumentality of these measures, 
was very extensively undermined, and the way 
was rapidly becoming prepared for Cyrus's ac- 
cession to power. 

During all this time, moreover, Harpagus 
was personally very deferential and obsequious 
to Astyages, and professed an unbounded devot- 
edness to his interests. He maintained a high 
rank at court and in the army, and Astyages 
relied upon him as one of the most obedient and 
submissive of his servants, without entertaining 
any suspicion whatever of his true designs. 

At length a favorable occasion arose, as Har- 
pagus thought, for the execution of his plans. 
It was at a time when Astyages had been guilty 
of some unusual acts of tyrannr and oppression, 
by which he had produced extensive dissatis- 
l 



130 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 560 

Co-operation in Media. Harpagus writes to Cyrus 

faction among his people. Harpagus commu- 
nicated, very cautiously, to the principal meii 
around him, the designs that he had long beer, 
forming for deposing Astyages and elevating 
Cyrus in his place. He found them favorabl} 
inclined to the plan. The way being thus pre- 
pared, the next thing was to contrive some se- 
cret way of communicating with Cyrus. As 
the proposal which he was going to make was 
that Cyrus should come into Media with as 
great a force as he could command, and head 
an insurrection against the government of As- 
tyages, it would, of course, be death to him to 
have it discovered. He did not dare to trust 
the message to any living messenger, for fear 
of betrayal ; nor was it safe to send a letter 
by any ordinary mode of transmission, lest the 
letter should be intercepted by some of Astya- 
ges's spies, and thus the whole plot be discov- 
ered. He finally adopted the following very ex- 
traordinary plan : 

He wrote a letter to Cyrus, and then taking 
a hare, which some of his huntsmen had caught 
for him, he opened the body and concealed the 
letter within. He then sewed up the skin 
again in the most careful manner, so that no 
signs of the incision should remain. He deliv- 



B.C. 560.] Accession. 333 

Harpagua's singular method of conveying Iiis letter to Cyrus. 

ered this hare, together with some nets and 
other hunting apparatus, to certain trustworthy 
servants, on whom he thought he could rely, 
charging them to deliver the hare into Cyrus's 
own hands, and to say that it came from Har- 
pagus, and that it was the request of Harpagus 
that Cyrus should open it himself and alone. 
Harpagus concluded that this mode of making 
the communication was safe ; for, in case the 
persons to whom the hare was intrusted were 
to be seen by any of the spies or other persons 
employed by Astyages on the frontiers, they 
would consider them as hunters returning from 
the chase with their game, and would never 
think of examining the body of a hare, in the 
hands of such a party, in search after ,a clan- 
destine correspondence. 

The plan was perfectly successful. The men 
passed into Persia without any suspicion. They 
delivered the hare to Cyrus, with their message 
He opened the hare, and found the letter. It 
was in substance as follows : 

^^It is plain, Cyrus, that you are a favorite 
of Heaven, and that you are destined to a great 
and glorious career. You could not otherwise 
have escaped, in so miraculous a manner, the 



134 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 560 

Contents of Harpagus's letter. Excitement of Cyrua 

snares set for you in your infancy. Astyages 
meditated your death, and he took such meas- 
ures to effect it as would seem to have made 
your destruction sure. You were saved by the 
special interposition of Heaven. You are aware 
by what extraordinary incidents you were pre- 
served and discovered, and what great and un- 
usual prosperity has since attended you. You 
know, too, what cruel punishments Astyages 
inflicted upon me, for my humanity in saving 
you. The time has now come for retribution. 
From this time the authority and the dominions 
of Astyages may be yours. Persuade the Per- 
sians to revolt. Put yourself at the head of an 
army and march into Media. I shall probably 
myself J)e appointed to command the army sent 
out to oppose you. If so, we will join our forces 
when we meet, and I will enter your service. 
I have conferred with the leading nobles in Me- 
dia, and they are all readj' to espouse your 
cause. You may rely upon finding every thing 
thus prepared for you here ; come, therefore, 
without any delay." 

Cyrus was thrown into a fever of excitement 
and agitation on reading this letter. He de- 
termined to accede to Harpagus's proposal. He 



B.C. 560.] Accp?sioN 185 

Cyrus accedes to Harpagus's plan. How to raise au army, 

revolved in his mind for some time the meas- 
ures by which he could raise the necessary 
force. Of course he could not openly announce 
his plan and enlist an army to effect it, for any 
avowed and public movement of that kind 
would be immediately made known to Astya- 
ges, who, by being thus forewarned of his ene- 
mies' designs, might take effectual measures to 
circumvent them. He determined to resort to 
deceit, or, as he called it, stratagem; nor did 
he probably have any distinct perception of the 
wrongfulness of such a mode of proceeding. 
The demon of war upholds and justifies false- 
hood and treachery, in all its forms, on the part 
of his votaries. He always applauds a forgery, a 
false pretense, or a lie : he calls it a stratagem. 
Cyrus had a letter prepared, in the form of a 
commission from Astyages, appointing him com- 
mander of a body of Persian forces to be raised 
for the service of the king. Cyrus read the 
fabricated document in the public assembly of 
the Persians, and called upon all the warriors 
to join him. When they were organized, he 
ordered them to assemble on a certain day, at 
a place that he named, each one provided with 
a woodman's ax. When they were thus mus- 
tered, he marched them into a forest, and set 



136 Cyrus the Great. [B.G. 560. 

The day of toil. The day of festivity. 

them at work to clear a piece of ground. The 
army toiled all day, felling the trees, and piling 
thena up to be burned. They cleared in this 
way, as Herodotus states, a piece of ground 
eighteen or twenty furlongs in extent. Cyrus 
kept them thus engaged in severe and incessant 
toil all the day, giving them, too, only coarse 
food and little rest. At night he dismissed them, 
commanding them to assemble again the sec- 
ond day. 

On the second day, when they came togeth- 
er, they found a great banquet prepared for 
them, and Cyrus directed them to devote the 
day to feasting and making merry. There was 
an abundance of meats of all kinds, and rich 
wines in great profusion. The soldiers gave 
themselves up for the whole day to merriment 
and revelry. The toils and the hard fare of the 
day before had prepared them very effectually 
to enjoy the rest and the luxuries of this festi- 
val. They spent the hours in feasting about 
their camp-fires and reclining on the grass, 
where they amused themselves and one another 
by relating tales, or joining in merry songs and 
dances. At last, in the evening, Cyrus called 
them together, and asked them which day they 
had liked the best. They replied that there 



B.C. 560.] Accession. 137 

Speech of Cyrus. Ardor of the eoldiera 

was nothing at all to like in the one, and noth- 
ing to be disliked in the other. They had had, 
on the first day, hard work and bad fare, and 
on the second, uninterrupted ease and the most 
luxurious pleasures. 

"It is indeed so," said Cyrus, "and yoa 
have your destiny in your own hands to make 
your lives pass like either of these days, just as 
you choose. If you will follow me, you will en- 
joy ease, abundance, and luxury. If you re- 
fuse, you must remain as you are, and toil on 
as you do now, and endure your present priva- 
tions and hardships to the end of your days." 
He then explained to them his designs. He 
told them that although Media was a great and 
powerful kingdom, still that they were as good 
soldiers as the Medes, and with the arrange- 
ments and preparations which he had made, 
they were sure of victory. 

The soldiers received this proposal with great 
enthusiasm and joy. They declared themselves 
ready to follow Cyrus wherever he should lead 
them, and the whole body immediately com- 
menced making preparations for the expedition. 
Astyages was, of course, soon informed of these 
proceedings. He sent an ( rder to Cyrus, sum- 
moning him immediately into his presence 



138 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 560. 

Defection of Harpagus. The battle 

Cyrus sent back word^ in reply, that Astyages 
would probably see him sooner than he wished, 
and went on vigorously with his preparations. 
When all was ready, the army marched, and, 
crossing the frontiers, they entered into Media. 

In the mean time, Astyages had collected a 
large force, and, as had been anticipated by the 
conspirators, he put it under the command of 
Harpagus. Harpagus made known his design 
of going over to Cyrus as soon as he should 
meet him, to as large a portion of the army as 
he thought it prudent to admit to his confi- 
dence ; the rest knew nothing of the plan ; and 
thus the Median army advanced to meet the 
invaders, a part of the troops with minds intent 
on resolutely meeting and repelling their ene- 
mies, while the rest were secretly preparing to 
go over at once to their side. 

When the battle was joined, the honest part 
of the Median army fought valiantly at first, 
but soon, thunderstruck and utterly confounded 
at seeing themselves abandoned and betrayed 
by a large body of their comrades, they were 
easily overpowered by the triumphant Persians. 
Some were taken prisoners ; some fled back to 
Astyages ; and others, following the example of 
tlie deserters, went over to Cyrus's camp and 



B,C. 560.] Accession. 139 

Rage of Astyages. His vengeance on the magi 

swelled the numbers of his train. Cyrus, thus 
re-enforced by the accessions he had received, 
and encouraged by the flight or dispersion of all 
who still wished to oppose him, began to ad- 
vance toward the capital. 

Astyages, when he heard of the defection oi 
Harpagus and of the discomfiture of his army, 
was thrown into a perfect phrensy of rage and 
hate. The long-dreaded prediction of his dream 
seemed now about to be fulfilled, and the magi, 
who had taught him that when Cyrus had once 
been made king of the boys in sport, there was 
no longer any danger of his aspiring to regal 
power, had proved themselves false. They had 
either intentionally deceived him, or they were 
ignorant themselves, and in that case they were 
worthless impostors. Although the danger from 
Cyrus's approach was imminent in the extreme, 
Astyages could not take any measures for 
guarding against it until he had first gratified 
the despotic cruelty of his nature by taking ven- 
geance on these false pretenders. He directed 
to have them all seized and brought before him, 
and then, having upbraided them with bitter 
reproaches for their false predictions, he order- 
ed them all to be crucified. 

He then adopted the most decisive measures 



140 Cyrus the Great. [6.0.560. 

Defeat and capture of Astyages. Interview with Harpagus. 

for raising an army. He ordered every man 
capable of bearing arms to come forward, and 
then, putting himself at the head of the im- 
mense force which he had thus raised, he ad- 
vanced to meet his enemy. He supposed, no 
doubt, that he was sure of victory ; but he un- 
derrated the power which the discipline, the 
resolution, the concentration, and the terrible 
energy of Cyrus's troops gave to their formida- 
ble array. He was defeated. His army was 
totally cut to pieces, and he himself was taken 
prisoner. 

Harpagus was present when he was taken, 
and he exulted in revengeful triumph over the 
fallen tyrant's ruin. Astyages was filled with 
rage and despair. Harpagus asked him what 
he thought now of the supper in which he had 
compelled a father to feed on the flesh of his 
child. Astyages, in reply, asked Harpagus 
whether he thought that the success of Cyrus 
was owing to what he had done. Harpagus 
replied that it was, and exultingly explained to 
Astyages the plots he had formed, and the prepa- 
rations which he had made for Cyrus's invasion, 
so that Astyages might see that his destruc- 
tion had been effected by Harpagus alone, in 
terrible retribution for the atrocious crhrivs which 



B.C.560.J Accession. 141 

Cyrus King of Media and Persia. Confinement of Astyagea 

he had committed so many years before, and 
for which the vengeance of the sufferer had 
slumbered, during the long interval, only to be 
more complete and overwhelming at last. 

Astyages told Harpagus that he was a mis- 
erable wretch, the most foolish and most wicked 
of mankind. He was the most foolish, for hav- 
ing plotted to put power into another's hands 
which it would have been just as easy for him 
to have secured and retained in his own ; and 
he was the most wicked, for having betrayed 
his country, and delivered it over to a foreign 
power, merely to gratify his own private re- 
venge. 

The result of this battle was the complete 
overthrow of the power and kingdom of Asty- 
ages, and the establishment of Cyrus on the 
throne of the united kingdom of Media and Per- 
sia. Cyrus treated his grandfather with kind- 
ness after his victory over him. He kept him 
confined, it is true, but it was probably that in- 
direct and qualified sort of confinement which 
is all that is usually enforced in the case of 
princes and kings. In such cases, some exten- 
sive and often sumptuous residence is assigned 
to the illustrious prisoner, with grounds suf- 
ficiently extensive to afford every necessary 
10 



142 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 560. 

Acquiescence of the Medes. Death of Astyages. 

range for recreation and exercise, and with 
bodies of troops for keepers, which have much 
more the form and appearance of military 
guards of honor attending on a prince, than of 
jailers confining a prisoner. It was probably 
in such an imprisonment as this that Astyages 
passed the remainder of his days. The people, 
having been wearied with his despotic tyranny, 
rejoiced in his downfall, and acquiesced very 
readily in the milder and more equitable gov- 
ernment of Cyrus. 

Astyages came to his death many years aft- 
erward, in a somewhat remarkable manner. 
Cyrus sent for him to come into Persia, where 
he was himself then residing. The officer who 
had Astyages in charge, conducted him, on the 
way, into a desolate wilderness, where he per- 
ished of fatigue, exposure, and hunger. It was 
supposed that this was done in obedience to se- 
cret orders from Cyrus, who perhaps found the 
charge of such a prisoner a burden. The offi- 
cer, however, was cruelly punished for the act ; 
but even this may have been only for appear- 
ances, to divert the minds of men from all sus- 
picion that Cyrus could himself have been an 
accomplice in such a crime. 

The whole revolution which has been describ- 



B.C. 560." Accession. 143 

SuddeTiness of Cyrus's elevation. Harpagus. 

ed in this^ chapter, from its first inception to its 
final accomplishment, was effected in a very 
short period of time, and Cyrus thus found him- 
self very unexpectedly and suddenly elevated to 
a throne. 

Harpagus continued in his service, and be- 
came subsequently one of his most celebrated 
generals. 



144 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 547. 

plans of CroBsus. The River Halys. 



Chapter VI. 
The Oracles. 

AS soon as Cyrus had become established 
on his throne as King of the Modes and 
Persians, his influence and power began to ex- 
tend westward toward the confines of the em- 
pire of Croesus, king of Lydia. Croesus was 
aroused from the dejection and stupor into 
which the death of his son had plunged him, as 
related in a former chapter, by this threatening 
danger. He began to consider very earnestly 
what he could do to avert it. 

The River Halys, a great river of Asia Mi- 
nor, which flows northward into the Black Sea, 
was the eastern boundary of the Lydian em- 
pire. Croesus began to entertain the design of 
raising an army and crossing the Halys, to in- 
vade the empire of Cyrus, thinking that that 
would perhaps be safer policy than to wait for 
Cyrus to cross the Halys, and bring the war 
upon him. Still, the enterprise of invading Per- 
sia was a vast undertaking, and the responsi- 
bility great of being the aggressor in the oon» 



B.C.547.] The Oracles. 145 

Nature of the oracles Situation of Delphi 

test. After carefully considering the subject in 
ail its aspects, Croesus found himself still per 
plexed and undecided. 

The Greeks had a method of looking into 
futurity, and of ascertaining, as they imagined, 
by supernatural means, the course of future 
events, which was peculiar to that people ; at 
least no other nation seems ever to have prac- 
ticed it in the precise form which prevailed 
among them. It was by means of the oracles. 
There were four or five localities in the Gre- 
cian countries which possessed, as the people 
thought, the property of inspiring persons who 
visited them, or of giving to some natural ob- 
ject certain supernatural powers by which fu- 
ture events could be foretold. The three most 
important of these oracles were situated re- 
spectively at Delphi, at Dodona, and at the 
Oasis of Jupiter Ammon. 

Delphi was a small town built in a sort of 
valley, shaped like an amphitheater, on the 
eouthern side of Mount Parnassus. Mount Par- 
nassus is north of the Peloponnesus, not very 
far from the shores of the Gulf of Corinth. 
Delphi was in a picturesque and romantic situ- 
ation, with the mountain behind it, and steep, 
precipitous rocks descending to the level coun- 
K 



146 Gyrus the Great. [B.C. 547. 

The gaseous vapor. The priestess. The sacred tripod. 

try before. These precipices answered instead 
of walls to defend the temple and the town. 
In very early times a cavern or fissure in the 
rocks was discovered at Delphi, from which 
there issued a stream of gaseous vapor, which 
produced strange effects on those who inhaled 
it. It was supposed to inspire them. People 
resorted to the place to obtain the benefit of 
these inspirations, and of the knowledge which 
they imagined they could obtain by means of 
them. Finally, a temple was built, and a 
priestess resided constantly in it, to inhale the 
vapor and give the responses. When she gave 
her answers to those who came to consult the 
oracle, she sat upon a sort of three-legged stool, 
which was called the sacred tripod. These 
stools were greatly celebrated as a very import- 
ant part of the sacred apparatus of the place. 
This oracle became at last so renowned, that 
the greatest potentates, and even kings, came 
from great distances to consult it, and they 
made very rich and costly presents at the shrine 
when they came. These presents, it was sup- 
posed, tended to induce the god who presided 
over the oracle to give to those who made them 
favorable and auspicious replies. The deity that • 
dictated the predictions of this oracle was Apollo. 



B.C.547.] The Oracles. 147 

The oracle of Dodona. The two black doves, 

There was another circumstance, besides the 
existence of the cave, which signalized the lo- 
cality where this oracle was situated. The 
people believed that this spot was the exact 
center of the earth, which of course they con- 
sidered as one vast plain. There was an an- 
cient story that Jupiter, in order to determine 
the central point of creation, liberated two ea- 
gles at the same time, in opposite quarters of 
the heavens, that they might fly toward one 
another, and so mark the middle point by the 
place of their meeting. They met at Delphi. 

Another of the most celebrated oracles was 
at Dodona. Dodona was northwest of Delphi, 
in the Epirus, which was a country in the 
western part of what is nov/ Turkey in Europe, 
and on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. The or- 
igin of the oracle at Dodona was, as the priest- 
esses there told Herodotus, as follows : In very 
ancient times, two black doves were set at lib- 
erty in Thebes, which was a very venerable 
and sacred city of Egypt. One flew toward 
the north and the other toward the west. The 
former crossed the Mediterranean, and then 
continued its flight over the Peloponnesus, and 
over all the southern provinces cf Greece, until 
it reached Dodona. There it alighted on a 



148 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 547. 

The priestesses of Dodona. Manner of obtaining responses, 

beech-tree, and said, in a human voice, that 
that spot was divinely appointed for the seat of 
a sacred oracle. The other dove flew to the 
Oasis of Jupiter Ammon. 

There were three priestesses at Dodona in 
the days of Herodotus. Their names were Pro- 
menea, Timarete, and Nicandre. The answers 
of the oracle were, for a time, obtained by the 
priestesses from some appearances which they 
observed in the sacred beech on which the dove 
alighted, when the tree was agitated by the 
wind. In later times, however, the responses 
were obtained in a still more singular manner. 
There was a brazen statue of a man, holding a 
whip in his hand. The whip had three lashes, 
which were formed of brazen chains. At the 
end of each chain was an astragalus^ as it was 
called, which was a row of little knots or knobs, 
such as were commonly appended to the lashes 
of whips used in those days for scourging crim- 
inals. 

These heavy lashes hung suspended in the 
hand of the statue over a great brazen caldron, 
in such a manner that the wind would impel 
them, from time to time, against its sides, caus- 
ing the caldron to ring and resound like a gong. 
There was, however, something in this reso- 



liC.547.| The Oracles. 149 

The great brazen caldron. The Oasis of Jupiter Anamoii. 

nance supernatural and divine ; for, though it 
was not loudj it was very long continued, when 
once the margin of the caldron was touched, 
however gently, by the lashes. In fact, it was 
commonly said that if touched in the morning, 
it would be night before the reverberations 
would have died entirely away. Such a belief 
could be very easily sustained among the com- 
mon people ; for a large, open-mouthed vessel 
like the Dodona caldron, with thin sides formed 
of sonorous metal, might be kept in a state of 
continual vibration by the wind alone. 

They who wished to consult this oracle came 
with rich presents both for the priestesses and 
for the shrine, and w^hen they had made the 
offerings, and performed the preliminary cere- 
monies required, they propounded their ques- 
tions to the priestesses, vv^ho obtained the re- 
plies by interpreting, according to certain rules 
which they had formed, the sounds emitted by 
the mysterious gong. 

The second black dove which took its flight 
from Thebes alighted, as we have already said, 
in the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon. This oasis 
was a small fertile spot in the midst of the des- 
erts of Africa, west of Egypt, about a hundred 
miles from the Nile, and somewhat nearer than 



150 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 547 

Oiscoveiy of the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon. Other cracles 

that to the Mediterranean Sea. It was first 
discovered in the following manner : A certain 
king was marchiing across the deserts, and his 
army, having exhausted their supplies of water, 
were on the point of perishing with thirst, when 
a ram mysteriously appeared, and took a posi- 
tion before them as their guide. They followed 
him, and at length came suddenly upon a green 
and fertile valley, many miles in length. The 
ram conducted them into this valley, and then 
suddenly vanished, and a copious fountain of 
water sprung up in the place where he had 
stood. The king, in gratitude for this divine 
interposition, consecrated the spot and built a 
temple upon it, which was called the temple of 
Jupiter Ammon. The dove alighted here, and 
ever afterward the oracles delivered by the 
priests o£ this temple were considered as di- 
vinely inspired. 

These three were the most important oracles. 
There were, however, many others of subordi- 
nate consequence, each of which had its own 
peculiar ceremonies, all senseless and absurd 
At one there was a sort of oven-shaped cave in 
the rocks, the spot being inclosed by an arti- 
ficial wall. The cave was about six feet wide 
and eight feet deep. The descent into it was 



B.C. 547.] The Oraclb*. 151 



Mode of consulting the oracle. Mystic ceremonies 

by a ladder. Previously to consulting this or- 
acle certain ceremonies were necessary, which 
it required several days to perform. The ap- 
plicant was to offer sacrifices to many different 
deities, and to purify himself in various ways. 
He was then conducted to a stream in the 
neighborhood of the oracle, where he was to be 
anointed and washed. Then he drank a cer- 
tain magical water, called the water of forget- 
fulness, which made him forget all previous sor- 
rows and cares. Afterward he drank of anoth- 
er enchanted cup, which contained the water of 
remembrance ; this was to make him remem- 
ber all that should be communicated to him in 
the cave. He then descended the ladder, and 
received within the cave the responses of the 
oracle. 

At another of these oracles, which was situ- 
ated in Attica, the magic virtue was supposed 
to reside in a certain marble statue, carved in 
honor of an ancient and celebrated prophet, and 
placed in a temple. Whoever wished to con- 
sult this oracle must abstain from wine for 
three days, and from food of every kind for 
twenty-four hour?) preceding the application. 
He was then to offer a ram as a sacrifice : and 
afterward, taking the skin of the ram from the 



152 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 547. 

CroBsus puts the oracles to the test. Manner of doing it 

carcasSj he was to spread it out before the statue, 
and lie down upon it to sleep. The answers of 
the oracle came to him in his dreams. 

But to return to Croesus. He wished to as- 
certain, by consulting some of these oracles, 
what the result of his proposed invasion of the 
dominions of Cyrus would be, in case he should 
undertake it ; and in order to determine which 
of the various oracles were most worthy of re- 
liance, he conceived the plan of putting them 
all to a preliminary test. He effected this ob- 
ject in the following manner : 

He dispatched a number of messengers from 
Sardis, his capital, sending one to each of the 
various oracles. He directed these messengers 
to make their several journeys with all conven- 
ient dispatch ; but, in order to provide for any 
cases of accidental detention or delay, he allow- 
ed them all one hundred days to reach their 
several places of destination. On the hundredth 
day from the time of their leaving Sardis, they 
were all to make applications to the oracles, 
and inquire what Croesus, king of Lydia, was 
doing at that time. Of course he did not tell 
them what he should be doing ; and as the ora- 
cles themselves could not possibly know how he 
was employed by any human powers, their an- 



B.C. 547.] The Oracles. 153 

Return of the messengers. The replies. 

swers would seem to test the validity of their 
claims to powers divine. 

Croesus kept the reckoning of tl.^e days him- 
self with great care, and at the hour appointed 
on the hundredth day, he employed himself in 
boiling the flesh of a turtle and of a lamb to- 
gether in a brazen vessel. The vessel was cov- 
ered with a lid, which was also of brass. He 
then awaited the return of the messengers 
They came in due time, one after another, 
bringing the replies which they had severally 
obtained. The replies were all unsatisfactory) 
except that of the oracle at Delphi. This an- 
swer was in verse, as, in fact, the responses of 
that oracle always were. The priestess who 
sat upon the tripod was accustomed to give 
the replies in an incoherent and half-intelligible 
manner, as impostors are very apt to do in ut- 
tering prophecies, and then the attendant priests 
and secretaries wrote them out in verse. 

The verse which the messenger brought back 
from the Delphic tripod was in Greek ; but 
some idea of its style, and the import of it, is 
conveyed by the following imitation : 

" I number the sands, I measure the sea, 
What's hidden to others is known to me. 
The lamb and the turtle are simmering slowp 
With brass above them and biass below." 



154 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 547, 



Croesus decides in favor of Delphi, His costly gifta 

Of course, Croesus decided that the Delphic 
oracle was the one that he must rely upon for 
guidance in respect to his projected campaign. 
And he now began to prepare to consult it in 
a manner corresponding with the vast import- 
ance of the subject, and with his own bound- 
less wealth. He provided the most extraordi- 
nary and sumptuous presents. Some of these 
treasures were to be deposited in the temple, 
as sacred gifts, for permanent preservation there. 
Others were to be offered as a burnt sacrifice in 
honor of the god. Among the latter, besides 
an incredible number of living victims, he 
caused to be prepared a great number of couch- 
es, magnificently decorated with silver and gold, 
and goblets and other vessels of gold, and dresses 
of various kinds richly embroidered, and numer- 
ous other articles, all intended to be used in the 
ceremonies preliminary to his application to the 
oracle. When the time arrived, a vast con- 
course of people assembled to witness the spec- 
tacle. The animals were sacrificed, and the 
people feasted on the flesh ; and when these 
ceremonies were concluded, the couches, the 
goblets, the utensils of every kind, the dresses — 
every thing, in short, which had been used on 
the occasion, were heaped up into one great sac- 



B.C.547.J The Oracles. 155 

rhe silver tank. The golden lion. 

rificial pile, and set on fire. Every thing that 
was combustible was consumed, while the gold 
vvas melted, and ran into plates of great size, 
which were afterward taken out from the ashes. 
Thus it was the workmanship only of these ar- 
ticles which was destroyed and lost by the fire. 
The gold, in which the chief value consisted, 
was saved. It was gold from the Pactolus. 

Besides these articles, there were others 
made, far more magnificent and costly, for the 
temple itself. There was a silver cistern or 
tank, large enough to hold three thousand gal- 
lons of wine. This tank was to be used by the 
inhabitants of Delphi in their great festivals. 
There was also a smaller cistern, or immense 
goblet, as it might, perhaps, more properly be 
called, which was made of gold. There were 
also many other smaller presents, such as basins, 
vases, and statues, all of silver and gold, and 
of the most costly workmanship. The gold, 
top, which had been taken from the fire, was 
cast again, a part of it being formed into the 
image of a lion, and the rest into large plates 
of metal for the lion to stand upon. The image 
was then set up upon the plates, within the pre- 
cincts of the temple. 

There was one piece of statuary which CroB- 



156 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 547 

The bread-maker. Her history 

S'ls presented to the oracle at Delphi, which was, 
in some respects, more extraordinary than any 
of the rest. It was called the bread-maker. It 
was an image representing a woman, a servant 
in the household of Croesus, whose business it 
was to bake the bread. The reason that in- 
duced Croesus to honor this bread-maker with 
a statue of gold was, that on one occasion du- 
ring his childhood she had saved his life. The 
mother of Croesus died when he was young, 
and his father married a second time. The 
second wife wished to have some one of her 
children, instead of Croesus, succeed to her hus- 
band's throne. In order, therefore, to remove 
Croesus out of the way, she prepared some 
poison and gave it to the bread-maker, instruct- 
ing her to put it into the bread which Croesus 
was to eat. The bread-maker received the pois- 
on and promised to obey. But, instead of doing 
so, she revealed the intended murder to Croesus, 
and gave the poison to the queen's own children. 
In gratitude for this fidelity to him, Croesus, 
when he came to the throne, caused this statue 
to be made, and now he placed it at Delphi, 
where he supposed it would forever remain. 
The memory of his faithful servant was indeed 
immortalized by the measure, though the statue 



BC.547.] The Oracles. 157 

The- oracle questioned. The responaa 

itself, as well as all these other treasures, in pro. 
cess of time disappeared. In fact, statues of 
brass or of marble generally make far more du- 
rable monuments than statues of gold ; and no 
structure or object of art is likely to be very per- 
manent among mankind unless the workman- 
ship is worth more than the material. 

Croesus did not proceed himself to Delphi 
with these presents, but sent them by the hands 
of trusty messengers, who were instructed to 
perform the ceremonies required, to offer the 
gifts, and then to make inquiries of the oracle 
in the Allowing terms. 

' ' Croesus, the sovereign of Lydia and of va- 
rious other kingdoms, in return for the wisdom 
which has marked your former declarations, 
has sent you these gifts. He now furthermore 
desires to know whether it is safe for him to 
proceed against the Persians, and if so, whether 
it is best for him to seek the assistance of any 
allies." 

The answer was as follows : 

" If Croesus crosses the Halys, and prosecutes 
a war with Persia, a mighty empire will be over- 
thrown. It will be best for him to form an alli- 
ance with the most powerful states of Greece." 

Croesus was extremely pleased with this re- 



158 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.547. 

Delight of Croesus. Supplementary inquiry. 

sponse. He immediately resolved on under- 
taking the expedition against Cyrus; and to 
express his gratitude for so favorable an answer 
to his questions, he sent to Delphi to inquire 
what was the number of inhabitants in the city, 
andj when the answer was reported to him, he 
sent a present of a sum of money to every one. 
The Delphians, in their turn, conferred special 
privileges and honors upon the Lydians and 
upon Croesus in respect to their oracle, giving 
them the precedence in all future consultations, 
and conferring upon them other marks of dis- 
tinction and honor. 

At the time when Croesus sent his present 
to the inhabitants of Delphi, he took the oppor- 
tunity to address another inquiry to the oracle, 
which was, whether his power would ever de- 
cline. The oracle replied in a couplet of Greek 
verse, similar in its style to the one recorded on 
the previous occasion. 

It was as follows : ' 

' Whene'er a mule shall mount upon the Median throne, 
Then, and not till then, shall great Croesus fear to lose 
his own." 

This answer pleased the king quite as much 
as the former one had done. The allusion to 
the contingency of a mule's reigning in Media 



B.C. 547.] The Oracles. loi) 

CrcBsus's feeling of security. Nature ot the oiacltw. 

he very naturally regarded as only a rhetorical 

and mystical mode of expressing an utter im- 
possibility. Croesus considered himself and tb<- 
continuance of his power as perfectly secure. 
He was fully confirmed in his determination to 
erganize his expedition without any delay, and 
to proceed immediately to the proper measures 
for obtaining the Grecian alliance and aid which 
the oracle had recommended. The plans which 
he formed, and the events which resulted, will 
be described in subsequent chapters. 

In respect to these Grecian oracles, it is 
proper here to state, that there has been much 
discussion among scholars on the question how 
they were enabled to maintain, for so long a 
period, so extended a credit among a people as 
intellectual and well informed as the Greeks. 
It was doubtless by means of a variety of con- 
trivances and influences that this end was at- 
tained. There is a natural love of the marvel- 
ous among the humbler classes in all countries, 
which leads them to be very ready to believe 
in what is mystic and supernatural ; and they 
accordingly exaggerate and color such real in- 
cidents as occur under any strange or remark- 
able circumstances, and invest any unusual 
phenomena which they witness with a mirac- 



160 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 547 

Means by which the credit of the oracles was sustained. 

. __« 

ulous or supernatural interest. The cave at 
Delphi might really have emitted gases which 
would produce quite striking effects upon those 
who inhaled them ; and how easy it would be 
for those who witnessed these effects to imagine 
that some divine and miraculous powers must 
exist in the aerial current which produced them. 
The priests and priestesses, who inhabited the 
temples in which these oracles were contained, 
had, of course, a strong interest in keeping up 
the belief of their reality in the minds of the 
community ; so were, in fact, all the inhabit- 
ants of the cities which sprung up around them. 
They derived their support from the visitors 
who frequented these places, and they contrived 
various ways for drawing contributions, both 
of money and gifts, from all who came. In 
one case there was a sacred stream near an or- 
acle, where persons, on permission from the 
priests, were allowed to bathe. After the bath- 
ing, they were expected to throw pieces of 
money into the stream. What afterward, in 
such cases, became of the money, it is not dif- 
ficult to imagine. 

Nor is it necessary to suppose that all these 
priests and priestesses were impostors. Hav 
ing been trained up from infancy to believe that 



B.C. 547.] The Oracles. 161 

Whether the priests were impostors. Answers of the oracles. 

the inspirations were real, they would continue 
to look upon them as such all their lives. Even 
at the present day we shall all, if we closely 
scrutinize our mental habits, find ourselves con- 
tinuing to take for granted, in our maturer 
years, what we inconsiderately imbibed or were 
erroneously taught in infancy, and that, often, 
in cases where the most obvious dictates of rea- 
son, or even the plain testimony of our senses, 
might show us that our notions are false. The 
priests and priestesses, therefore, who imposed 
on the rest of mankind, may have been as hon- 
estly and as deep in the delusion themselves as 
any of their dupes. 

The answers of the oracles were generally 
vague and indefinite, and susceptible of almost 
any interpretation, according to the result. 
Whenever the event corresponded with the pre- 
diction, or could be made to correspond with it 
by the ingenuity of the commentators, the sto- 
ry of the coincidence would, of course, be every 
where spread abroad, becoming more striking 
and more exact at each repetition. "Where 
there was a failure, it would not be direct and 
absolute, on account of the vagueness and in- 
definiteness of the response, and there would 
therefore be no interest felt in hearing or in cir- 
L 



162 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.547. 

Collusion between the priests and those who consulted the oracle. 

oulating the story. The cases, thus, which 
would tend to estabhsh the truth of the oracle, 
would be universally known and remembered, 
while those of a contrary bearing would be 
speedily forgotten. 

There is no doubt, however, that in many 
cases the responses were given in collusion 
with the one who consulted the oracle, for the 
purpose of deceiving others. For example, let 
us suppose that Croesus wished to establish 
strongly the credibility of the Delphic oracle in 
the minds of his countrymen, in order to en- 
courage them to enlist in his armies, and to en* 
gage in the enterprise which he was contem- 
plating against Cyrus with resolution and con- 
fidence ; it would have been easy for him to 
have let the priestess at Delphi know what he 
was doing on the day when he sent to inquire, 
and thus himself to have directed her answer. 
Then, when his messengers returned, he would 
appeal to the answer as proof of the reality of 
the inspiration which seemed to furnish it. Al- 
exander the Great certainly did, in this way, 
act in collusion with the priests at the temple 
of Jupiter Ammon. 

The fact that there have been so many and 



B.C.547.J The Oracles. 163 

Is there any revelation truly divine ? 



such successful cases of falsehood and impos 
ture among mankind m respect to revelations 
from Heaven, is no indication, as some super- 
ficially suppose, that no revelation is true, but 
is, on the other hand, strong evidence to the 
contrary. The Author of human existence has 
given no instincts in vain ; and the universal 
tendency of mankind to believe in the supernat- 
ural, to look into an unseen world, to seek, and 
to imagine that they find, revelations from Heav- 
en, and to expect a continuance of existence 
after this earthly life is over, is the strongest 
possible natural evidence that there is an un 
seen world ; that man may have true commu 
nications with it ; that a personal deity reigns,, 
who approves and disapproves of human con- 
duct, and that there is a future state of being. 
In this point of view, the absurd oracles of 
Greece, and the universal credence which they 
obtained, constitute strong evidence that there 
is somewhere to be found inspiration and proph- 
ecy really divine, 



164 Cyrus the Great [E.G. 546 

Reasons which induced Croesus to invade Media. 



Chapter VIL 

The Conquest of Lydia. 

f ilHERE were, in fact, three inducements 
-*- which combined their influence on the mind 
of Croesus, in leading him to cross the Halys, 
and invade the dominions of the Medes and 
Persians : first, he was ambitious to extend his 
own empire ; secondly, he feared that if he did 
not attack Cyrus, Cyrus would himself cross 
the Halys and attack him ; and, thirdly, he felt 
under some obligation to consider himself the 
ally of Astyages, and thus bound to espouse his 
cause, and to aid him in putting down, if possi- 
ble, the usurpation of Cyrus, and in recovering 
his throne. He felt under this obligation be- 
cause Astyages was his brother-in-law ; for the 
latter had married, many years before, a daugh- 
ter of Alyattes, who was the father of Croesus. 
This, as Croesus thought, gave him a just title 
to interfere between the dethroned king and the 
rebel who had dethroned him. Under the in- 
fluence of all these reasons combined, and en- 
couraged by the responses of the oracle, he de- 
terrnined on attempting the invasion. 



B.C. 546.] Conquest of Lydia. 165 

The LacedaRmoniang. Embassadorg tx> Sparta 

The first measure which he adopted was to 
form an alliance with the most powerful of the 
states of Greece, as he had been directed to do 
by the oracle. After much inquiry and consid* 
eration, he concluded that the LacedsBmonian 
state was the most powerful. Their chief city 
was Sparta, in the Peloponnesus. They were 
a warlike, stern, and indomitable race of men, 
capable of bearing every possible hardship, and 
of enduring every degree of fatigue and toil, and 
they desired nothing but military glory for their 
reward. This was a species of wages which it 
was very easy to pay ; much more easy to fur- 
nish than coin, even for Croesus, notwithstand- 
ing the abundant supplies of gold which he was 
accustomed to obtain from the sands of the Pac- 
tolus. 

Croesus sent embassadors to Sparta to in- 
form the people of the plans which he contem- 
plated, and to ask their aid. He had been in- 
structed, he said, by the oracle at Delphi, to 
seek the alliance of the most powerful of the 
states of Greece, and he accordingly made ap- 
plication to them. They were gratified with 
the compliment implied in selecting them, and 
acceded readily to his proposal. Besides, they 
were already on very friendly terms with Crce- 



166 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.546 

Preparations of Croesus. The counsel of Sardaris 

sus ; for, some years before, they had sent to 
him to procure some gold for a statue which 
they had occasion to erect, offering to give an 
equivalent for the value of it in such produc- 
tions as their country afforded. Croesus sup- 
plied them with the gold that they needed, but 
generously refused to receive any return. 

In the mean time, Croesus went on, energet- 
ically, at Sardis, making the preparations for 
his campaign. One of his counselors, whose 
name was Sardaris, ventured, one day, strongly 
to dissuade him from undertaking the expedi- 
tion. '' You have nothing to gain by it," said 
he, '' if you succeed, and every thing to lose if 
you fail. Consider what sort of people these 
Persians are whom you are going to combat. 
They live in the most rude and simple manner, 
without luxuries, without pleasures, without 
wealth. If you conquer their country, you will 
find nothing in it worth bringing away. On 
the other hand, if they conquer you, they will 
come like a vast band cf plunderers into Lydia, 
where there is every thing to tempt and reward 
them. I counsel you to leave them alone, and 
to remain on this side the Halys, thankful if 
Cyrus will be contented to remain on the 
other." 



B.C.546.] Conquest of Lydia. 167 

The array begins to march. Thales the MllesiaiL 

But Croesus was not in a mood of mind to 
be persuaded by such reasoning. 

When all things were ready, the army com- 
menced its march and moved eastward, through 
one province of Asia Minor after another, un- 
til they reached the Halys. This river is a 
considerable stream, which rises in the inte- 
rior of the country, and flows northward into 
the Euxine Sea. The army encamped on the 
banks of it, and some plan was to be formed 
for crossing the stream. In accomplishing this 
object, Croesus was aided by a very celebrated 
engineer who accompanied his army, named 
Thales. Thales was a native of Miletus, and 
is generally called in history, Thales the Mi- 
lesian. He was a very able mathematician and 
calculator, and many accounts remain of the 
discoveries and performances by which he ac- 
quired his renown. 

For example, in the course of his travels, he 
at one time visited Egypt, and while there, he 
contrived a very simple way of measuring the 
height of the pyramids. He set up a pole on 
the plain in an upright position, and then meas- 
ured the pole and also its shadow. He also 
measured the length of the shadow of the pyr- 
amid. He then calculated the height of the 



168 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 546 

Mathematical skill of Thales. His theorema 

pyramid by this proportion : as the length of 
shadow of the pole is to that of the pole itself, 
so is the length of the shadow of the pyramid 
to its height. 

Thales was an astronomer as well as a phi- 
losopher and engineer. He learned more ex- 
actly the true length of the year than it had 
been known before ; and he also made some 
calculations of eclipses, at least so far as to 
predict the year in which they would happen 
One eclipse which he predicted happened to oc- 
cur on the day of a great battle between two 
contending armies. It was cloudy, so that the 
combatants could not see the sun. This circum- 
stance, however, which concealed the eclipse 
itself, only made the darkness which was caused 
by it the more intense. The armies were much 
terrified at this sudden cessation of the light 
of day, and supposed it to be a warning from 
heaven that they should desist from the combat. 

Thales the Milesian was the author of sev- 
eral of the geometrical theorems and demon- 
strations now included in the Elements of 
Euclid. The celebrated fifth proposition of 
the first book, so famous among all the modern 
nations of Europe as the great stumbling block 
in the way of beginners in the study of geom- 



B.C. 546.] Conquest of Lydia. 169 

Ingenious plan of Thales for crossing he Halys. 

etry, was his. The discovery of the truth ex- 
pressed in this proposition, and of the compli- 
cated demonstration which establishes it, was 
certainly a much greater mathematical per- 
formance than the measuring of the altitude 
of the pyramids by their shadow. 

But to return to Croesus. Thales undertook 
the work of transporting the army across the 
river. He examined the banks, and found, at 
length, a spot where the land was low and level 
for some distance from the stream. He caused 
the army to be brought up to the river at this 
point, and to be encamped there, as near to the 
bank as possible, and in as compact a form 
He then employed a vast number of laborers 
to cut a new channel for the waters, behind the 
army, leading out from the river above, and re- 
joining it again at a little distance below. 
When this channel was finished, he turned the 
river into its new course, and then the army 
passed without difficulty over the former bed of 
the stream. 

The Halys being thus passed, Croesus moved 
on in the direction of Media. But he soon 
found that he had not far to go to find his en- 
emy. Cyrus had heard of his plans through 
deserters and spies, and he had for some time 



170 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 546 

Advance of Cyrus. Preparations for battle. 

been advancing to most him. One after the 
other of the nations through whose dominions 
he had passed, he had subjected to his sway, 
or, at least, brought under his influence by 
treaties and alliances, and had received from 
them all re-enforcements to swell the numbers 
of his army. One nation only remained — the 
Babylonians. They were on the side of Croe- 
sus. They were jealous of the growing power 
of the Modes and Persians, and had made a 
league with. Croesus, promising to aid him in 
the war. The other nations of the East were 
in alliance with Cyrus, and he was slowly 
moving on, at the head of an immense combined 
force, tov/ard the Halys, at the very time when 
Croesus was crossing the stream. 

The scouts, therefore, that preceded the army 
of Croesus on its march, soon began to fall back 
into the camp, with intelligence that there w^as 
a large armed force coming on to meet them, 
the advancing columns filling all the roads, and 
threatening to overwhelm them. The scouts 
from the army of Cyrus carried back similar 
intelligence to him. The two armies accord- 
ingly halted and began to prepare for battle 
The place of their meeting was called Pteria 
It was in the province of Cappadocia, and to- 
ward the eastern part of Asia Minor 



B.C. 546.] Conquest OF Lydia. 171 

Great battle at Pteria. Undecisive result. 

A gieat battle was fought at Pteria. It was 
continued all day, and remained undecided when 
the sun went down. The combatants separa- 
ted when it became dark, and each withdrew 
from the field. Each king found, it seems, that 
his antagonist was more formidable than he had 
imagined, and on the morning after the battle 
they both seemed inclined to remain in their 
respective encampments, without evincing any 
disposition to renew the contest. 

Croesus, in fact, seems to have considered 
that he was fortunate in having so far repulsed 
the formidable invasion which Cyrus had been 
intending for him. He considered Cyrus's army 
as repulsed, since they had withdrawn from the 
field, and showed no disposition to return to it. 
He had no doubt that Cyrus would now go back 
to Media again, having found how well prepar- 
ed Croesus had been to receive him. For him- 
self, he concluded that he ought to be satisfied 
with the advantage which he had already gain- 
ed, as the result of one campaign, and return 
again to Sardis to recruit his army, the force 
of which had been considerably impaired by the 
battle, and so postpone the grand invasion till 
the next season. He accordingly set out on his 
return. He dispatched messengers, at the same 



172 Cyrus THE Great. [B.C. 546, 

CroBsus returns to Sardis. Cyrus follows him. 

time, to Babylon, to Sparta, to Egypt, and to 
other countries with which he was in alliance, 
informing these various nations of the great 
battle of Pteria and its results, and asking them 
to send him, early in the following spring, all 
the re-enforcements that they could command, 
to join him in the grand campaign which he 
was going to make the next season. 

He continued his march homeward without 
any interruption, sending off, from time to time, 
as he was moving through his own dominions, 
such portions of his troops as desired to return 
to their homes, enjoining upon them to come 
back to him in the spring. By this temporary 
disbanding of a portion of his army, he saved 
the expense of maintaining them through the 
winter. 

Very soon after Croesus arrived at Sardis, 
the whole country in the neighborhood of the 
capital was thrown into a state of universal 
alarm by the news that Cyrus was close at 
hand. It seems that Cyrus had remained in 
the vicinity of Pteria long enough to allow 
Croesus to return, and to give him time to dis- 
miss his troops and establish himself securely 
in the city. He then suddenly resumed his 
march, and came on toward Sardis with the 



B.C. 546.] Conquest of Lydia. 173 

Confusion and alarm at Sardis. The Lydian cavalry 

utmost possible dispatch. Croesus, in fact, had 
no announcement of his approach until he heard 
of his arrival. 

All was now confusion and alarm, both with- 
in and without the city. Croesus hastily col- 
lected all the forces that he could command. 
He sent immediately to the neighboring cities, 
summoning all the troops in them to hasten to 
the capital. He enrolled all the inhabitants of 
the city that were capable of bearing arms. 
By these means he collected, in a very short 
time, quite a formidable force, which he drew 
up, in battle array, on a great plain not far 
from the city, and there waited, with much 
anxiety and solicitude, for Cyrus to come on. 

The Lydian army was superior to that of 
Cyrus in cavalry, and as the place where the 
battle was to be fought was a plain, w^hich was 
the kind of ground most favorable for the op- 
erations of that species of force, Cyrus felt some 
solicitude in respect to the impression which 
might be made by it on his army. Nothing is 
more terrible than the onset of a squadron of 
horse when charging an enemy upon the field of 
battle. They come in vast bodies, sometimes 
consisting of many thousands, with the speed 
of the wind, the men flourishing their sabers ^ 
12 



174 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.546. 

Nature of cavalry. Manner of receiving a cavalry charges 

and rending the air with the most unearthly- 
cries, those in advance being driven irresistibly 
on by the weight and impetus of the masses be- 
hind. The dreadful torrent bears down and 
overwhelms every thing that attempts to re- 
sist its way. They trample one another and 
their enemies together promiscuously in the 
dust ; the foremost of the column press on with 
the utmost fury, afraid quite as much of the 
headlong torrent of friends coming on behind 
them, as of the line of fixed and motionless 
enemies who stand ready to receive them be- 
fore. These enemies, stationed to withstand 
the charge, arrange themselves in triple or 
quadruple rows, with the shafts of their spears 
planted against the ground, and the points di- 
rected forward and upward to receive the ad- 
vancing horsemen. These spears transfix and 
kill the foremost horses ; but those that come 
on behind, leaping and plunging over their fallen 
companions, soon break through the lines and 
put their enemies to flight, in a scene of inde- 
scribable havoc and confusion. 

Croesus had large bodies of horse, while Cy- 
rus had no efficient troops to oppose them. He 
had a great number of camels in the rear of 
his army, which had been employed as beasts 



B.C. 546.] Conquest of Lydia. 17f> 

The camels. Cyrus opposes them to the cavalry 

of burden to transport the baggage and stores 
of the army on their march. Cyrus concluded 
to make the experiment of opposing these camels 
to the cavalry. It is frequently said by the 
ancient historians that the horse has a natural 
antipathy to the camel, and can not bear eithei 
the smell or the sight of one, though this is not 
found to be the case at the present day. How- 
ever the fact might have been in this respect, 
Cyrus determined to arrange the camels in his 
front as he advanced into battle. He accord- 
ingly ordered the baggage to be removed, and, 
releasing their ordinary drivers from the charge 
of them, he assigned each one to the care of a 
soldier, who was to mount him, armed with a 
spear. Even if the supposed antipathy of the 
horse for the camel did not take effect, Cyrus 
thought that their large and heavy bodies, de- 
fended by the spears of their riders, would afford 
the most effectual means of resistance against 
the shock of the Lydian squadrons that he 
was now able to command. 

The battle commenced, and the squadrons 
of horse came on. But, as soon as they came 
near the camels, it happened that, either from 
the influence of the antipathy above referred to, 
or from alarm at the novelty of the spectacle 



176 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 546. 

The battle fought. Cyrus victorious. 

of such huge and misshapen beasts, or else be- 
cause of the substantial resistance which the 
camels and the spears of their riders made to 
the shock of their charge, the horses were soon 
thrown into confusion and put to flight. In 
fact, a general panic seized them, and they be- 
came totally unmanageable. Some threw their 
riders ; others, seized with a sort of phrensy, 
became entirely independent of control. They 
turned, and trampled the foot soldiers of their 
own army under foot, and threw the whole 
body into disorder. The consequence was, that 
the army of Croesus was wholly defeated ; they 
fled in confusion, and crowded in vast throngs 
through the gates into the city, and fortified 
themselves there. 

Cyrus advanced to the city, invested it closely 
on all sides, and commenced a siege. But the 
appearances were not very encouraging. The 
walls were lofty, thick, and strong, and the 
numbers within the city were amply sufficient 
to guard them. Nor was the prospect much 
more promising of being soon able to reduce 
the city by famine. The wealth of Croesus had 
enabled him to lay up almost inexhaustible 
stores of food and clothing, as well as treasures 
of silver and gold. He hoped, thereforcj to be 



B.C. 546.] Conquest of Lydia. 177 

Situation of Sardis. Its walls. An ancient legend. 

able to hold out against the besiegers until 
help should come from some of his allies. Ha 
had sent messengers to them, asking them to 
come to his rescue without any delay, before 
he was shut up in the city. 

The city of Sardis was built in a position 
naturally strong, and one part of the wall pass- 
ed over rocky precipices which were considered 
entirely impassable. There was a sort of glen 
or rocky gorge in this quarter, outside of the 
walls, down which dead bodies were thrown on 
one occasion subsequently, at a time when the 
city was besieged, and beasts and birds of prey 
fed upon them there undisturbed, so lonely was 
the place and so desolate. In fact, the walls 
that crowned these precipices were considered 
absolutely inaccessible, and were very slightly 
built and very feebly guarded. There was an 
ancient legend that, a long time before, when a 
certain Males was king of Lydia, one of his 
wives had a son in the form of a lion, whom 
they called Leon, and an oracle declared that 
if this Leon were carried around the walls of 
the city, it would be rendered impregnable, and 
should never be taken. They carried Leon, 
therefore, around, so far as the regular walls 
extended. "When they came to this precipice 
M 



178 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 546 

CjTXia besieges the city. The reconnoissancei 



of rocks, they returned, considering that this 
part of the city was impregnable without any, 
such ceremony. A spur or eminence from the 
mountain of Tmolus, which was behind the 
city, projected into it at this point, and there 
was a strong citadel built upon its summit. 

Cyrus continued the siege fourteen days, and 
then he determined that he must, in some way 
or other, find the means of carrying it by as- 
sault, and to do this he must find some place 
to scale the walls. He accordingly sent a party 
of horsemen around to explore every part, offer- 
ing them a large reward if they would find any 
place where an entrance could be effected. The 
horsemen made the circuit, and reported that 
their search had been in vain. At length a cer- 
tain soldier, named Hyrseades, after studying 
for some time the precipices on the side which 
had been deemed inaccessible, saw a sentinel, 
who was stationed on the walls above, leave his 
post and come climbing down the rocks for 
some distance to get his helmet, which had ac- 
cidentally dropped down. Hyraeades watched 
him both as he descended and as he returned. 
He reflected on this discovery, communicated 
it to others, and the practicability of scaling the 
rock and the walls at that point was discussed. 



B.C.546.J Conquest of Lydia. 181 

The walls scaled- Storming of the city 

In the end, the attempt was made and was suc- 
cessful. Hyrseades went up first, followed hy 
a fe vv daring spirits who were ambitious of the 
glory of the exploit. They were not at first 
observed from above. The way being thus 
shown, great numbers followed on, and so large 
a force succeeded in thus gaining an entrance 
that the city was taken. 

In the dreadful confusion and din of the 
storming of the city, Croesus himself had a very 
narrow escape from death. He was saved by 
the miraculous speaking of his deaf and dumb 
son — at least such is the story. Cyrus had 
given positive orders to his soldiers, both before 
the great battle on the plain and during the 
siege, that, though they might slay whomever 
else they pleased, they must not harm Croesus, 
but must take him alive. During the time of 
the storming of the town, when the streets were 
filled with infuriated soldiers, those on the one 
side wild with the excitement of triumph, and 
those on the other maddened with rage and de- 
spair, a party, rushing along, overtook Croesus 
and his helpless son, whom the unhappy father, 
it seems, was making a desperate effort to save 
The Persian soldiers were about to transfix 
Croesus with their spears, when the son, whc 



182 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 546 

CroBsus made prisoner. The funeral pile 

had never spoken before, called out, ^'It is Croe- 
sus ; do not kill him." The soldiers were ar- 
rested by the words, and saved the monarch's 
life. They made him prisoner, and bore him 
away to Cyrus. 

Croesus had sent, a long time before, to in- 
quire of the Delphic oracle by what means the 
power of speech could be restored to his son. 
The answer was, that that was a boon which he 
had better not ask ; for the day on which he 
should hear his son speak for the first time, 
would be the darkest and most unhappy day of 
his life. 

Cyrus had not ordered his soldiers to spare 
the life of Croesus in battle from any sentiment 
of humanity toward him, but because he wish- 
ed to have his case reserved for his own deci- 
sion. When Croesus was brought to him a 
captive, he ordered him to be put in chains, and 
carefully guarded. As soon as some degree of 
^rder was restored in the city, a large funeral 
pile was erected, by his directions, in a public 
square, and Croesus was brought to the spot. 
Fourteen Lydian young men, the sons, proba- 
bly, of the most prominent men in the state, 
were with him. The pile was large enough 
for them all, and they were placed upon it. 



B.C. 546.] Conquest of Lydia. 183 

Anguish and despair of CrcBsus. The sayi:ag of Solon. 



They were all laid upon the wood. Croesus 
raised himself and looked around, surveying 
with extreme consternation and horror the prep- 
ftrations which were making for lighting the 
pile. His heart sank within him as he thought 
of the dreadful fate that was before him. The 
spectators stood by in solemn silence, awaiting 
the end. Croesus broke this awful pause by 
crying out, in a tone of anguish and despair, 

'' Oh Solon ! Solon ! Solon !" 

The officers who had charge of the execution 
asked him what he meant. Cyrus, too, who was 
himself personally superintending the scene, 
asked for an explanation. Croesus was, for a 
time, too much agitated and distracted to re- 
ply. There were difficulties in respect to lan- 
guage, too, which embarrassed the conversation, 
as the two kings could speak to each other only 
through an interpreter. At length Croesus gave 
an account of his interview with Solon, and of 
the sentiment which the philosopher had ex- 
pressed, that no one could decide whether a 
man was truly prosperous and happy till it was 
determined how his life was to end. Cyrus 
was greatly interested in this narrative ; but, in 
the mean time, the interpreting of the conver- 
sation had been slow, a considerable period had 



184 Cyrus the Greai. [H.C,546. 

CroBSUs is saved. He becomes Cyrus's friend. 

elapsed, and the officers had lighted the fire. 
The pile had been made extremely combustible, 
and the fire was rapidly making its way through 
the whole mass. Cyrus eago.rly ordered it to 
be extinguished. The efforts which the sol- 
diers made for this purpose seemed, at first, 
likely to be fruitless ; but they were aided very 
soon by a sudden shower of rain, which, com 
ing down from the mountains, began, just at 
this time, to fall ; and thus the flames were ex- 
tinguished, and CrcBsus and the captives saved 

Cyrus immediately, with a fickleness very 
common among great monarchs in the treat- 
ment of both enemies and favorites, began to 
consider Croesus as his friend. He ordered him 
to be unbound, brought him near his person, 
and treated him with great consideration and 
honor. 

Croesus remained after this for a long time 
with Cyrus, and accompanied him in his sub- 
sequent campaigns. He was very much in- 
censed at the oracle at Delphi for having de- 
ceived him by its false responses and predic- 
tions, and thus led him into the terrible snare 
into which he had fallen. He procured the fet- 
ters with which he had been chained whec 
placed upon the nile, and sent them to Pelphi, 



B.C. 546.] Conquest of Lydia. 185 

Croesus sends his fetters to the oracle at Delphi. 

with orders that they should be thrown down 
upon the threshold of the temple — the visible 
symbol of his captivity and ruin — as a reproach 
to the oracle for having deluded him and caus- 
ed his destruction. In doing this, the messen- 
gers were to ask the oracle whether imposition 
like that which had been practiced on Croesus 
was the kind of gratitude it evinced to one who 
had enriched it by such a profusion of offerings 
and gifts. 

To this the priests of the oracle said in reply, 
that the destruction of the Lydian dynasty had 
long been decreed by the Fates, in retribution 
for the guilt of Gyges, the founder of the line. 
He had murdered his master, and usurped the 
throne, without any title to it whatever. The 
judgments of Heaven had been denounced upon 
Gyges for this crime, to fall on himself or on 
some of his descendants. The Pythian Apollo 
at Delphi had done all in his power to postpone 
the falling of the blow until after the death of 
Croesus, on account of the munificent benefac- 
tions which he had made to the oracle ; but he 
had been unable to effect it : the decrees of Fate 
were inexorable. All that the oracle could do 
was to postpone — as it had done, it said, for 
three years — the execution of the sentence, and 



186 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 546 

Explanations of the priests. Their adroitness and dexterity 

to give Croesus warning of the evil that v^as 
impending. This had been done by announc- 
ing to him that his crossing the Halys would 
cause the destruction of a mighty empire, 
meanmg that of Lydia, and also by informing 
him that when he should find a mule upon the 
throne of Media he must expect to lose his own. 
Cyrus, who was descended, on the father's side, 
from the Persian stock, and on the mother's 
from that of Media, was the hybrid sovereign 
represented by the mule. 

When this answer was reported to Croesus, 
it is said that he was satisfied with the expla- 
nations, and admitted that the oracle was right, 
and that he himself had been unreasonable and 
wrong. However this may be, it is certain 
that, among mankind at large, since Croesus's 
day, there has been a great disposition to over- 
look whatever of criminality there may have 
been in the falsehood and imposture of the ora- 
cle, through admiration of the adroitness and 
dexterity which its ministers evinced in saving 
themselves from exposure. 



B.C. 544.] Conquest of Babylon. 187 

Babylon. The River Euphrates. CajQala 



Chapter VIII. 

The Conquest of Babylon. 

TN his advance toward the dominions of Croe- 
-*- sus in Asia Minor, Cyrus had passed to the 
northward of the great and celebrated city of 
Babylon. Babylon was on the Euphrates, to- 
ward the southern part of Asia. It was the 
capital of a large and very fertile region, which 
extended on both sides of the Euphrates toward 
the Persian Gulf. The limits of the country, 
however, which was subject to Babylon, varied 
very much at different times, as they were ex- 
tended or contracted by revolutions and wars. 
The River Euphrates was the great source 
of fertility for the whole region through which 
it flowed. The country watered by this river 
was very densely populated, and the inhabit- 
ants were industrious and peaceable, cultivating 
their land, and living quietly and happily on its 
fruits. The surface was intersected with ca- 
nals, which the people had made for conveying 
the water of the river over the land for the pur- 
pose of irrigating it. Some of these canals were 



188 Cyrus the Great. IB.C. 544 

Curious boats. Their mode of constructioii, 

navigable. There was one great trunk which 
passed from the Euphrates to the Tigris, sup- 
plying many miner canals b)' the way, that was 
navigable for vessels of considerable burden. 

The traffic of the country was, however, 
mainly conducted by means of boats of mod- 
erate size, the construction of which seemed tc 
Herodotus very curious and remarkable. Tht 
city was enormously large, and required im- 
mense supplies of food, which were broughi 
down in these boats from the agricultural coun- 
try above. The boats were made in the follow- 
ing manner : first a frame was built, of the 
shape of the intended boat, broad and shallow 
and with the stem and stern of the same form 
This frame was made of willows, like a basket^ 
and, when finished, was covered with a sheath- 
ing of skins. A layer of reeds was then spread 
over the bottom of the boat to protect the frame^ 
and to distribute evenly the pressure of the 
cargo. The boat, thus finished, was laden with 
the produce of the country, and was then floated 
down the river to Babylon. In this navigation 
the boatmen were careful to protect the leathei 
sheathing from injury by avoiding all contact 
with rocks, or even with the gravel of the shores, 
They kept their craft in the middle of the stream 



B.C. 544.] Conquest of Babylon, 189 

Primitive navigation. Return of the boatmen 

by means of two oars, or, rather, an oar and a 
paddle, which were worked, the first at the bowSj 
and the second at the stern. The advance of 
the boat was in some measure accelerated by 
these boatmen, though their main function was 
to steer their vessel by keeping it out of eddies 
and away from projecting points of land, and di- 
recting its course to those parts of the stream 
where the current w^as swiftest, and where it 
would consequently be borne forward most rap- 
idly to its destination. 

These boats were generally of very consid- 
erable size, and they carried, in addition to 
their cargo and crew, one or more beasts of 
burden — generally asses or mules. These ani- 
mals were allowed the pleasure, if any pleasure 
it was to them, of sailing thus idly down the 
stream, for the sake of having them at hand at 
the end of the voyage, to carry back again, up 
the country, the skins, which constituted the 
most valuable portion of the craft they sailed 
in. It was found that these skins, if carefully 
preserved, could be easily transported up the 
river, and would answer the purpose of a sec- 
ond voyage. Accordingly, when the boats ar- 
rived at Babylon, the cargo was sold, the boats 

were broken up, the skins were folded into 
10 



190 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 544 

Extent of Bhbvlofi . Parks, gardens, palaces, etc 

packs, and in this form the mules carried them 
up the river again, the boatmen driving the 
mules as they walked by their side. 

Babylon was a city of immense extent and 
magnitude. In fact, the accounts given of the 
space which it covered have often been con- 
sidered incredible. These accounts make the 
space which was included within the walls four 
or five times as large as London. A great deal 
of this space was, however, occupied by parks 
and gardens connected with the royal palaces, 
and by open squares. Then, besides, the houses 
occupied by the common people in the ancient 
cities were of fewer stories in height, and con- 
sequently more extended on the ground, than 
those built in modern times. In fact, it is prob- 
able that, in many instances, they were mere 
ranges of huts and hovels, as is the case, in- 
deed, to a considerable extent, in Oriental cities, 
at the present day, so that it is not at all impos- 
sible that even so large an area as four or five 
times the size of London may have been includ* 
ed within the fortifications of the city. 

In respect to the walls of the city, very ex- 
traordinary and apparently contradictory ac- 
counts are given by the various ancient authors 
who described them. Some make them seven- 



B.C. 544.] Conquest of Babylon. 191 

The walls cf Babylon. Marvelous accounts. 

ty-five, and others two or three hundred feet 
high There have been many discussions in 
respa:jt to the comparative credibility of these 
several statements, and some ingenious at^ 
tempts have been made to reconcile them. It 
is not, however, at all surprising that there 
should be such a diversity in the dimensions 
given, for the walling of an ancient city was 
seldom of the same height in all places. The 
structure necessarily varied according to the 
nature of the ground, being high wherever the 
ground without was such as to give the enemy 
an advantage in an attack, and lower in other 
situations, where the conformation of the sur- 
face was such as to afford, of itself, a partial 
protection. It is not, perhaps, impossible that, 
at some particular points — as, for example, 
across glens and ravines, or along steep decliv- 
ities — the walls of Babylon may have been rais- 
ed even to the very extraordinary height which 
Herodotus ascribes to them. 

The walls were made of bricks, and tho 
bricks were formed of clay and earth, which was 
dug from a trench made outside of the lines. 
This trench served the purpose of a ditch, to 
strensrthen the fortification when the wall was 
completed. The water from the river, and 



192 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 544. 

The ditches. Streets and gate* 

from streams flowing toward the river, was ad- 
mitted to these ditches on every side, and kept 
them always full. 

The sides of these ditches were lined with 
bricks too, which were made, like those of the 
walls, from the earth obtained from the exca- 
vations. They used for all this masonry a ce- 
ment made from a species of bitumen, which 
was found in great quantities floating down one 
of the rivers which flowed into the Euphrates, 
in the neighborhood of Babylon. 

The River Euphrates itself flowed through 
the city. There was a breast- work or low wall 
along the banks of it on either side, with open- 
ings at the terminations of the streets leading 
to the water, and flights of steps to go down. 
These openings were secured by gates of brass, 
which, when closed, would prevent an enemy 
from gaining access to the city from the river. 
TJie great streets, which terminated thus at the 
river on one side, extended to the walls of the 
city on the oth 3r, and they were crossed by other 
streets at right angles to them. In the outer 
walls of the city, at the extremities of all these 
streets, were massive gates of brass, with hinges 
and frames of the same metal. There were a 
hundred of these gates in all. They were 



B.C. 544.] Conquest of Babylon. 193 

Palace of the king. Temple of Belus. 

guarded by watch-towers on the walls above. 
The watch-towers were built on both the inner 
and outer faces of the wall, and the wall itself 
was so broad that there was room between these 
watch-towers for a chariot and four to drive 
and turn. 

The river, of course, divided the city into two 
parts. The king's palace was in the center of 
one of these divisions, within a vast circular in- 
closure, which contained the palace buildings, 
together with the spacious courts, and parks, 
and gardens pertaining to them. In the center 
of the other division was a corresponding inclos- 
ure, which contained the great temple of Belus. 
Here there was a very lofty tower, divided into 
eight separate towers, one above another, with 
a winding staircase to ascend to the summit. 
In the upper story was a sort of chapel, with a 
couch, and a table, and other furniture for use 
in the sacred ceremonies, all of gold. Above 
this, on the highest platform of all, was a grand 
observatory, where the Babylonian astrologers 
made their celestial observations. 

There was a bridge across the river, connect- 
ing one section of the city with the other, and 
it is said that there was a subterranean passage 
under the river also^ which was used as a pri- 
N 



194 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 544 

The bridge. Sculptures. The hanging gard«a* 

vate communication between two public edi- 
fices— palaces or citadels — -which were situated 
near the extremities of the bridge. All these 
constructions were of the most grand and im- 
posing character. In addition to the architect- 
ural magnificence of the buildings, the gates 
and walls were embellished with a great vari- 
ety of sculptures : images of animals, of every 
form and in every attitude; and men, single 
and in groups, models of great sovereigns, and 
representations of hunting scenes, battle scenes, 
and great events in the Babylonian history. 

The most remarkable, however, of all the 
wonders of Babylon— -though perhaps not built 
till after Cyrus's time — were what were called 
the hanging gardens. Although called the 
hanging gardens, they were not suspended in 
any manner, as the name might denote, but 
were supported upon arches and walls. The 
arches and walls sustained a succession of ter- 
races, rising one above another, with broad 
flights of steps for ascending to them, and on 
these terraces the gardens were made. The 
upper terrace, or platform, was several hundred 
feet from the ground ; so high, that it was nec- 
essary to build arches upon arches within, in 
order to attain the requisite elevation. The 



B.C.544.] Conquest of Babylon. 196 

Construction of the gardens. The platform and terraces. 

lateral thrust of these arches was sustained by 
a wall twenty-five feet in thickness, which sur- 
rounded the garden on all sides, and rose as 
high as the lowermost tier of arches, upon which 
would, of course, be concentrated the pressure 
and weight of all the pile. The whole struc- 
ture thus formed a sort of artificial hill, square 
in form, and rising, in a succession of terraces, 
to a broad and level area upon the top. The 
extent of this grand square upon the summit 
was four hundred feet upon each side. 

The surface which served as the foundation 
for the gardens that adorned these successive 
terraces and the area above was formed in the 
following manner : Over the masonry of the 
arches there was laid a pavement of broad flat 
stones, sixteen feet long and four feet wide. 
Over these there was placed a stratum of reeds, 
laid in bitumen, and above them another floor- 
ing of bricks, cemented closely together, so as 
to be impervious to v/ater. To make the secu- 
rity complete in this respect, the upper surface 
of this brick flooring was covered with sheets 
of lead, overlapping each other in such a man- 
ner as to convey all the water which might per- 
colate through the mold away to the sides of 
the garden. The earth and mold were placed 



196 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 544 



Kngine for raising water. Floral beautiea 

upon this surface, thus prepared, and the stra- 
turn was so deep as to allow large trees to take 
root and grow in it. There was an engine con- 
structed in the middle of the upper terrace, by 
which water could be drawn up from the river, 
and distributed over every part of the vast pile. 

The gardens, thus completed, were filled to 
profusion with every species of tree, and plant, 
and vine, which could produce fruit or flowers 
to enrich or adorn such a scene. Every coun- 
try in communication with Babylon was made 
to contribute something to increase the endless 
variety of floral beauty which was here literally 
enthroned. Gardeners of great experience and 
skill were constantly employed in cultivating 
the parterres, pruning the fruit-trees and the 
vines, preserving the walks, and introducing 
new varieties of vegetation. In a word, the 
hanging gardens of Babylon became one of the 
wonders of the world. 

The country in the neighborhood of Babylon, 
extending from the river on either hand, was 
in general level and low, and subject to inun- 
dations. One of the sovereigns of the country, 
a queen named Nitocris, had formed the grand 
design of constructing an immense lake, to take 
off the superfluous water in case of a flood, and 



B.C. 544.] Conquest of Babylon, 197 

The works of Nitocris. Her canals and levees. 

thus prevent an overflow. Slie also opened a 
great number of lateral and winding channels 
for the river, wherever the natural disposition 
of the surface afforded facilities for doing so, 
and the earth which was taken out in the 
course of these excavations was employed in 
raising the banks by artificial terraces, such as 
are made to confine the Mississippi at New Or- 
leans, and are there called levees."^ The object 
of Nicotris in these measures was two-fold. She 
wished, m the first place, to open all practica- 
ble channels for the flow of the water, and then 
to confine the current within the channels thus 
made. She also wished to make the naviga- 
tion of the stream as intricate and complicated 
as possible, so that, while the natives of the 
country might easily find their way, in boats, 
to the capital, a foreign enemy, if he should 
make the attempt, might be confused and lost. 
These were the rivers of Babylon on the banks 
of which the captive Jews sat down and wept 
when they remembered Zion. 

This queen Nitocris seems to have been quite 
distino^uished for her enmneerinsf and architect- 
ural plans. It was she that built the bridge 
across tlie Euphrates, within the city ; and as 

* From the FreDch word levee, raised. 



198 C\Rus THE Great. [B.C. 544. 

The bridge over the Euphrates. The tomb of the queen. 

there was a feeling of jealousy and ill will, as 
usual in such a case, between the two divisions 
of the town which the river formed, she caused 
the bridge to be constructed with a movable 
platform or draw, by means of which the com- 
munication might be cut off at pleasure. This 
draw was generally up at night and down by 
day. 

Herodotus relates a curious anecdote of thib 
queen, which, if true, evinces in another way 
the peculiar originality of mind and the inge- 
nuity which characterized all her operations. 
She caused her tomb to be built, before her 
death, over one of the principal gates of the 
city. Upon the fa9ade of this monument was 
a very conspicuous inscription to this effect : 
'^ If any one of the sovereigns, my successors, 
shall be in extreme want of money, let him 
open my tomb and take what he may think 
proper ; but let him not resort to this resource 
unless the urgency is extreme." 

The tomb remained for some time after the 
queen's death quite undisturbed. In fact, the 
people of the city avoided this gate altogether, 
on account of the dead body deposited above it, 
and the spot became well-nigh deserted. At 
length, in process of time, a subsequent sover- 



B.C.544.] Conquest of Babylon. 199 



Cyru3 plans an attack upon Babylon. Govemmen of Lydia 

eign, being in \Yant of money, ventured to open 
the tomb. He found, however, no money with- 
in. The gloomy vault contained nothing but 
the dead body of the queen, and a label with 
this inscription : ^^ If your avarice were not as 
msatiable as it is base, you w^ould not have in- 
truded on the repose of the dead." 

It was not surprising that Cyrus, having 
been so successful in his enterprises thus far, 
should now begin to turn his thoughts toward 
this great Babylonian empire, and to feel a de- 
sire to bring it under his sway. The first thing, 
however, was to confirm and secure his Lydian 
conquests. He spent some time, therefore, in 
organizing and arranging, at Sardis, the affairs 
of the new government which he was to substi- 
tute for that of Croesus there. He designated 
certain portions of his army to be left for gar- 
risons in the conquered cities. He appointed 
Persian, officers, of course, to command these 
forces ; but, as he wished to conciliate the Lyd- 
ians, he appointed many of the municipal and 
civil officers of the country from among them. 
There would appear to be no danger in doing 
this, as, by giving the command of the army to 
Persians, he retained all the real power directly 
in his own hands. 



200 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 544. 



Cyrus returns eastward. Revolt of the Lydians. 

One of these civil officers, the most import- 
ant, in fact, of all, was the gn:nd treasurer. 
To him Cyrus committed the charge of the 
stores of gold and silver v^hich came into his 
possession at Sardis, and of the revenues which 
were afterward to accrue. Cyrus appointed a 
Lydian named Pactyas to this trust, hoping 
by such measures to conciliate the people of 
the country, and to make them more ready to 
submit to his sway. Things being thus ar- 
ranged, Cyrus, taking Croesus with him, set 
out with the main army to return toward the 
East. 

As soon as he had left Lydia, Pactyas ex- 
cited the Lydians to revolt. The name of the 
commander-in-chief of the military forces which 
Cyrus had left was Tabalus. Pactyas aban- 
doned the city and retired toward the coast, 
where he contrived to raise a large army, 
formed partly of Lydians and partly of bodies 
of foreign troops, which he was enabled to hire 
by means of the treasures which Cyrus had put 
under his charge. He then advanced to Sardis, 
took possession of the town, and shut up Taba- 
lis, with his Persian troops, in the citadel. 

When the tidings of these events came to 
Cyrus, he was very much incensed, and de- 



B.C. 544.] Conquest of Babylon. 201 

Detachment of Mazares. Flight of Pactyas. 

termined to destroy the city. CrcESUs, how- 
ever, interceded very earnestly in its behalf. 
lie recommended that Cyrus, instead of burn- 
ing Sardis, should send a sufficient force to dis- 
arm the population, and that he should then 
enact such laws and make such arrangements 
as should turn the minds of the people to habits 
of luxury and pleasure. '^By doing this," said 
Croesus, ^-the people will, in a short time, be- 
come so enervated and so effeminate that you 
will have nothing to fear from them." 

Cyrus decided on adopting this plan. He 
dispatched a Median named Mazares, an offi- 
cer of his army, at the head of a strong force, 
with orders to go back to Sardis, to deliver Ta- 
balus from his danger, to seize and put to death 
all the leaders in the Lydian rebellion excepting 
Pactyas. Pactyas was to be saved alive, and 
sent a prisoner to Cyrus in Persia. 

Pactyas did not wait for the arrival of Ma- 
zares. As soon as he heard of his approach, he 
abandoned the ground, and fled northwardly tc 
the city of Cyme, and sought refuge there. 
When Mazares had reached Sardis and re- 
established the government of Cyrus there, ha 
sent messengers to Cyme, demanding the sur- 
render of the fugitive. 



202 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 544, 



Pactyas at Cyiue. The people consult the oracle 

The peopb of Cyme were uncertain whether 
they ought to comply. They said that they 
must first consult an oracle. There was a 
very ancient and celebrated oracle near ]Milo- 
tus. They sent messengers to this oracle, de- 
manding to know whether it were according to 
the will of the gods or not that the fugitive 
should be surrendered. The answer brought 
back was, that they might surrender him. 

They were accordingly making arrangements 
for doing this, when one of the citizens, a very 
prominent and influential man, named Aristod- 
icus, expressed himself not satisfied with the 
reply. He did not think it possible, he said, 
that the oracle could really counsel them to de- 
liver up a helpless fugitive to his enemies. The 
messengers must have misunderstood or misre- 
ported the answer which they had received. He 
finally persuaded his countrymen to send a sec- 
ond embassy : he himself was placed at the 
head of it. On their arrival, Aristodicus ad- 
dressed the oracle as follows : 

'^To avoid a cruel death from the Persians, 
Pactyas, a Lydian, fled to us for refuge. The 
Persians demanded that we should surrender 
him. Much as we are afraid of their power, 
we are still more afraid to deliver up a helpless 



B.C. 544.J Conquest of Babylon. 203 

Reply of the oracle. Aristodicus and the birds* nests. 

suppliant for protection without clear and de- 
cided directions from you." 

The embassy received to this demand the 
same reply as before. 

Still Aristodicus was not satisfied ; and, as 
if by way of bringing home to the oracle some- 
what more forcibly a sense of the true charac- 
ter of such an action as it seemed to recom- 
mend, he began to make a circuit in the grove 
which was around the temple in which the or- 
acle resided, and to rob and destroy the nest^i 
which the birds had built there, allured, ap- 
parently, by the sacred repose and quietude of 
the scene. This had the desired effect. A sol- 
emn voice was heard from the interior of the 
temple, saying, in a warning tone, 

" Impious man ! how dost thou dare to mo- 
lest those who have placed themselves under 
my protection ?" 

To this Aristodicus replied by asking the or- 
acle how it was that it watched over and guard- 
ed those who sought its own protection, while 
it directed the people of Cyme to abandon and 
betray suppliants for theirs. To this the oracle 
answered, 

"I direct them to do it, in order that such 
impious men may the sooner bring down upon 



204 Cyrus the Grkat. [B.C. 538. 

Capture of Pactyas. Situati< n of Belshazrar. 

their heads the judgments of heaven for having 
dared to entertain even the thought of deliver- 
ing up a helpless fugitive." 

When this answer was reported to the people 
of Cyme, they did not dare to give Pactyas up, 
nor, on the other hand, did they dare to incur 
the enmity of the Persians by retaining and 
protecting him. They accordingly sent him 
secretly away. The emissaries of Mazares, 
however, followed him. They kept constantly 
on his track, demanding him successively of 
every city where the hapless fugitive sought 
refuge, until, at length, partly by threats and 
partly by a reward, they induced a certain city 
to surrender him. Mazares sent him, a pris- 
oner, to Cyrus. Soon after this Mazares him- 
self died, and Harpagus was appointed governor 
of Lydia in his stead. 

In the mean time, Cyrus went on with his 
conquests in the heart of Asia, and at length, 
in the course of a few years, he had completed 
his arrangements and preparations for the at 
tack on Babylon. He advanced at the head 
of a large force to the vicinity of the city. 
The King of Babylon, whose name was Bel- 
shazzar, withdrew within the walls, shut the 
gates, and felt perfectly secure. A simple wall 



B.C.538.] Conquest of Babylon. 206 

Belshazzar's feeling of security. Approach of Cyrua 

was in those days a very effectual protection 
against any armed force whatever, if it was only 
high enough not to be scaled, and thick enough 
to resist the blows of a battering ram. The 
artillery of modern times would have speedily 
made a fatal breach in such structures ; but 
there was nothing but the simple force of man, 
applied through brazen-headed beams of wood, 
in those days, and Belshazzar knew well that 
his walls would bid all such modes of demoli- 
tion a complete defiance. He stationed his 
soldiers, therefore, on the walls, and his senti- 
nels in the watch towers, while he himself, and 
all the nobles of his court, feeling perfectly se- 
cure in their impregnable condition, and being 
abundantly supplied with all the means that 
the whole empire could furnish, both for suste- 
nance and enjoyment, gave themselves up, in 
their spacious palaces and gardens, to gayety, 
festivity, and pleasure. 

Cyrus advanced to the city. He stationed 
one large detachment of his troops at the open- 
ing in the main walls where the river entered 
into the city, and another one below, where it 
issued from it. These detachments were order- 
ed to march into the city by the bed of the riv- 
er, as soon as they should observe the water 
14 



206 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.538 

Cyrus draws off the water from the river. The city captured 

subsiding. He then employed a vast force of 
laborers to open new channels, and to widen 
and deepen those which had existed before, for 
the purpose of drawing off the waters from 
their usual bed. When these passages were 
thus prepared, the water was let into them one 
night, at a time previously designated, and it 
soon ceased to flow through the city. The de- 
tachments of soldiers marched in over the bed 
of the stream, carrying with them vast num- 
bers of ladders. With these they easily scaled 
the low walls which lined the banks of the riv- 
er, and Belshazzar was thunderstruck with the 
announcement made to him in the midst of one 
of his feasts that the Persians were in complete 
and full possession of the city. 



B.C.GOy.] Restoration of the Jews. 207 

The Jewish captivity. Jeremiah and the book of Chronicles, 



Chapter IX. 

The Restoration of the Jews. 

rpiHE period of the invasion of Babylonia by 
-*" Cyrus, and the taking of the city, was du- 
ring the time while the Jews were in captivity 
there. Cyrus was their deliverer. It results 
from this circumstance that the name of Cyrus 
is connected with sacred history more than that 
of any other great conqueror of ancient times. 
It was a common custom in the early ages 
of the world for powerful sovereigns to take the 
people of a conquered country captive, and 
make them slaves. They employed them, to 
some extent, as personal household servants, but 
more generally as agricultural laborers, to till 
the lands. 

An account of the captivity of the Jews in 
Babylon is given briefly in the closing chapters 
of the second book of Chronicles, though many 
of the attendant circumstances are more fully 
detailed in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 
was a prophet who lived in the time of the cap- 
tivity. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. 



208 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 608 

Incursions of Nebuchadnezzar. Denunciations of Jeremiah 

made repeated incursions into the land of Ju- 
dea, sometimes carrying away the reigning 
monarch, sometimes deposing him and appoint- 
ing another sovereign in his stead, sometimes 
assessing a tax or tribute upon the land, and 
sometimes plundering the city, and carrying 
away all the gold and silver that he could find. 
Thus the kings and the people were kept in a 
continual state of anxiety and terror for many 
years, exposed incessantly to the inroads of this 
nation of robbers and plunderers, that had, so 
unfortunately for them, found their way across 
their frontiers. King Zedekiah was the last of 
this oppressed and unhappy line of Jewish 
kings. 

The prophet Jeremiah was accustomed to de- 
nounce the sins of the Jewish nation, by which 
these terrible calamities had been brought upon 
them, with great courage, and with an elo- 
quence solemn and sublime. He declared that 
the miseries which the people suffered were the 
special judgments of Heaven, and he proclaim- 
ed repeatedly and openly, and in the most pub- 
lic places of the city, still heavier calamities 
which he said were impending. The people 
were troubled and distressed at these prophetic 
warnings, and some of them were deeply in- 



B.C.608.] Restoration of the Jews. 209 

predictions of Jeremiah. Exasperation of the priests and people 

censed against Jeremiah for uttering them. 
Finally, on one occasion, he took his stand in 
one of the public courts of the Temple, and, ad- 
dressing the concourse of priests and people that 
were there, he declared that, unless the nation 
repented of their sins and turned to God, the 
whole city should be overwhelmed. Even the 
Temple itself, the sacred house of God, should 
be destroyed, and the very site abandoned. 

The priests and the people who heard this 
denunciation were greatly exasperated. They 
seized Jeremiah, and brought him before a great 
judicial assembly for trial. The judges asked 
him why he uttered such predictions, declaring 
that by doing so he acted like an enemy to his 
country and a traitor, and that he deserved to 
die. The excitement was very great against 
him, and the populace could hardly be restrain- 
ed from open violence. In the midst of this 
scene Jeremiah was calm and unmoved, and 
replied to their accusations as follows : 

" Every thing which I have said again^^fc this 
city and this house, I have said by the direc- 
tion of the Lord Jehovah. Instead of resenting 
it, and being angry with me for delivering my 
message, it becomes you to look at your sins, 
and repent of them, and forsake them. It may 
Q 



210 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 608, 

Defense of Jeremiah. He is liberated 

be that by so doing God will have mercy upon 
you, and will avert the calamities which other- 
wise will most certainly come. As for myself, 
here I am in your hands. You can deal with 
me just as you think best. You can kill me 
if you will, but you may be assured that if you 
do so, you will bring the guilt and the conse- 
quences of shedding innocent blood upon your- 
selves and upon this city. I have said nothing 
and foretold nothing but by commandment of 
the Lord."^ 

The speech produced, as might have been 
expected, a great division among the hearers. 
Some were more angry than ever, and were 
eager to put the prophet to death. Others de- 
fended him, and insisted that he should not die. 
The latter, for the time, prevailed. Jeremiah 
was set at liberty, and continued his earnest 
expostulations with the people on account of 
their sins, and his terrible annunciations of the 
impending ruin of the city just as before. 

These unwelcome truths being so painful for 
the people to hear, other prophets soon began to 
appear to utter contrary predictions, for the 
sake, doubtless, of the popularity which they 
should themselves acquire by their promises of 

* Jeremiah, xxvi., 12-15. 



B.C.608.] ReSTOR ATIQN OF THE J E W S. 211 

Symbolic method of teaching. The wooden yoke and the iron yoke 

returning peace and prosperity. The name of 
one of these false prophets was Hananiah. On 
one occasion, Jeremiah, in order to present and 
enforce what he had to say more effectually on 
the minds of the people by means of a visible 
symbol, made a small wooden yoke, by divine 
direction, and placed it upon his neck, as a to- 
ken of the bondage which his predictions were 
threatening. Hananiah took this yoke from his 
neck and broke it, saying that, as he had tht <? 
broken Jeremiah^s wooden yoke, so God would 
break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from all na* 
tions within two years ; and then, even those 
of the Jews who had already been taken cap. 
tive to Babylon should return again in peace. 
Jeremiah replied that Hananiah's predictions 
were false, and that, though the wooden yoke 
was broken, God would make for Nebuchad- 
nezzar a yoke of iron, with which he should 
bend the Jewish nation in a bondage more cruel 
than ever. Still, Jeremiah himself predicted 
that after seventy years from the time when 
the last great captivity should come, the Jews 
should all be restored "again to their native land. 
He expressed this certain restoration of the 
Jews, on one occasion, by a sort of symbol, by 
means of which he made a much stronger im^ 



212 Cyrus the Gh eat. [B.C. 608 

The title deeds of Jeremiah's estate. The deeds deposited 

pression on the minds of the people than could 
have been done by simple words. There was 
a piece of land in the country of Benjamin, one 
of the provinces of Judea, which belonged to 
the family of Jeremiah, and it was held in such 
a way that, by paying a certain sum of money, 
Jeremiah himself might possess it, the right 
of redemption being in him. Jeremiah was in 
prison at this time. His uncle's son came into 
the court of the prison, and proposed to him to 
purchase the land. Jeremiah did so in the most 
public and formal manner. The title deeds 
were drawn up and subscribed, witnesses were 
summ.oned, the money weighed and paid over, 
the whole transaction being regularly complet- 
ed according to the forms and usages then com- 
mon for the conveyance of landed property. 
When all was finished, Jeremiah gave the 
papers into the hands of his scribe, directing 
him to put them safely away and preserve them 
with care, for after a certain period the country 
of Judea would again be restored to the peace- 
able possession of the Jews, and such titles to 
land would possess once more their full and 
original value. 

On one occasion, when Jeremiah's personal 
liberty was restricted so that he could not uttei 



B C.608.] Restoration of the Jews. 213 

Banich writes Jeremiah's prophecies. He reads them to the people. 

publicly, himself, his prophetical warnings, he 
employed Baruch, his scribe, to write them from 
his dictation, with a view of reading them to 
the people from some public and frequented 
part of the city. The prophecy thus dictated 
was inscribed upon a roll of parchment. Ba- 
ruch waited, when he had completed the writ- 
ing, until a favorable opportunity occurred for 
reading it, which was on the occasion of a great 
festival that was held at Jerusalem, and which 
brought the inhabitants of the land together 
from all parts of Judea. On the day of the 
festival, Baruch took the roll in his hand, and 
stationed himself at a very public place, at the 
entrance of one of the great courts of the Tem- 
ple ; there, calling upon the people to hear him, 
he began to read. A great concourse gathered 
around him, and all listened to him with pro- 
found attention. One of the by-standers, how- 
ever, went down immediately into the city, to 
the kmg's palace, and reported to the king's 
council, who were then assembled there, that a 
great concourse was convened in one of the 
courts of the Temple, and that Baruch was 
there reading to them a discourse or prophecy 
which had been written by Jeremiah. The 
members of the council sent a summons to Ba- 



214 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 608 

Baruch summoned before the council. The roll sent to the king. 

ruch to come immediately to them, and to bring 
his writing with him. 

When Baruch arrived, they directed him to 
read what he had written. Baruch accordingly 
read it. They asked him when and how that 
discourse was written. Baruch replied that he 
had written it, word by word, from the dicta- 
tion of Jeremiah. The officers informed him 
that they should be obliged to report the cir- 
cumstances to the king, and they counseled 
Baruch to go to Jeremiah and recommend to 
him to conceal himself, lest the king, in his an- 
ger, should do him some sudden and violent in* 
jury.^ 

The officers then, leaving the roll in one of 
their own apartments, went to the king, and 
reported the facts to him. He sent one of his 
attendants, named Jehudi, to bring the roll. 
When it came, the king directed Jehudi to 
read it. Jehudi did so, standing by a fire which 
had been made in the apartment, for it w^as 
bitter cold. 

After Jehudi had read a few pages from the 
roll, finding that it contained a repetition of 
the same denunciations and warnings by which 

* See the acoouut of these transactions in the 36th chapter 
of Jeremiah. • 



B.C608.J Restoration of the Jews. 215 



The roll destroyed. Jeremiah attempts to leave the city. 

the king had often been displeased before, he 
took a knife and began to cut the parchment 
into pieces, and to throw it on the fire. Some 
other persons who were standing by interfered, 
and earnestly begged the king not to allow the 
roll to be burned. But the king did not inter- 
fere. He permitted Jehudi to destroy the parch- 
ment altogether, and then sent officers to take 
Jeremiah and Baruch, and bring them to him ; 
but they were nowhere to be found. 

The prophet, on one occasion, was reduced 
to extreme distress by the persecutions which 
his faithfulness, and the incessant urgency of 
his warnings and expostulations had brought 
, upon him. It was at a time when the Chal- 
dean armies had been driven away from Jeru- 
salem for a short period by the Egyptians, as one 
vulture drives away another from its prey. Jer- 
emiah determined to avail himself of the op- 
portunity to go to the province of Benjamin, to 
visit his friends and family there. He was in- 
tercepted, however, at one of the gates, on his 
way, and accused of a design to make his es- 
cape from the city, and go over to the Chalde- 
ans. The prophet earnestly denied this charge. 
They paid no regard to his declarations, but 
sent him back to Jerusalem, to the officers of 



216 Cyrus the Great. [B.C 608 

The king sends for Jeremiah. He is imprisoned 

the king's government, who confined him in a 
house which they used as a prison. 

After he had remained in this place of con« 
finement for several days, the king sent and 
took him from it. and brought him to the palace. 
The king inquired whether he had any prophecy 
to utter from the Lord. Jeremiah replied that 
the word of the Lord was, that the Chaldeans 
should certainly return again, and that Zede- 
kiah himself should fall into their hands, and 
be carried captive to Babylon. While he thus 
persisted so strenuously in the declarations 
which he had made so often before, he demand- 
ed of the king that he should not be sent back 
again to the house of imprisonment from which 
he had been rescued. The king said he would 
not send him back, and he accordingly directed, 
instead, that he should be taken to the court 
of the public prison, where his confinement 
would be less rigorous, and there he was to be 
supplied daily with food, so long, as the king 
expressed it, as there should be any food re- 
maining in the city. 

But Jeremiah's enemies were not at rest. 
They came again, after a time, to the king, 
and represented to him that the prophet, by his 
gloomy and terrible predictions, discouiaged and 



B.C.608.J Restoration of the Jews. 217 

Jeremiah cast into a dungeon. The king orders him to be taken up 

depressed the hearts of the people, and weak- 
ened their hands ; that he ought, accordingly, to 
be regarded as a public enemy ; and they begged 
the king to proceed decidedly against him. The 
king replied that he would give him into their 
hands, and they might do with him what they 
pleased. 

There was a dungeon in the prison, the only ' 
access to which was from above. Prisoners 
were let down into it with ropes, and left there 
to die of hunger. The bottom of it was wet 
and miry, and the prophet, when let down into 
its gloomy depths, sank into the deep mire. 
Here he would soon have died of hunger and 
misery ; but the king, feeling some misgivings 
in regard to what he had done, lest it might 
really be a true prophet of God that he had thus 
delivered into the hands of his enemies, inquir- 
ed what the people had done with their prison- 
er ; and when he learned that he had been thus, 
as it were, buried alive, he immediately sent 
officers with orders to take him out of the dun- 
geon. The officers went to the dungeon. They 
opened the mouth of it. They had brought 
ropes with them, to be used for drawing the 
unhappy prisoner up, and cloths, also, which ha 
was to fold together and place under his arms, 



218 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 606, 



Jerusalora besieged by the Babylonians. Capture of the king; 

where the ropes were to pass. These ropes and 
cloths they let down into the dungeon^ and call- 
ed upon Jeremiah to place them properly around 
his body. Thus they drew him safely up out 
of the dismal den. 

These cruel persecutions of the faithful proph- 
et were all unavailing either to silence his voice 
^or to avert the calamities which his warnings 
portended. At the appointed time, the judg- 
ments which had been so long predicted came 
in all their terrible reality. The Babylonians 
invaded the land in great force, and encamped 
about the city. The siege continued for two 
years. At the end jf that time the famine be- 
came insupportable. Zedekiah, the king, de- 
termined to make a sortie, with as strong a force 
as he could command, secretly, at night, in hopes 
to escape with his own life, and intending to 
leave the city to its fate. He succeeded in 
passing out through the city gates with his 
band of followers, and in actually passing the 
Babylonian lines ; but he had not gone far be- 
fore his escape was discovered. He was pur- 
sued and taken. The city was then stormedj 
and, as usual in such cases, it was given up to 
plunder and destruction. Vast numbers of the 
ujhabitants were killed ; many more were tak- 



13. C. 606.] Restoration of the Jews. 221 

Captivity of the Jews. The prophet DanieL 

en captive ; the principal buildings, both public 
and private, weie burned ; the walls were bro- 
ken down, and all the public treasures of the 
Jews, the gold and silver vessels of the Temple, 
and a vast quantity of private plunder, were 
carried away to Babylon by the conquerors. 
All this was seventy years before the conquest 
of Babylon by Cyrus. 

Of course, during the time of this captivity, 
a very considerable portion of the inhabitants 
of Judea remained in their native land. The 
deportation of a whole people to a foreign land 
is impossible. A vast number, however, of the 
inhabitants of the country were carried away, 
and they remained, for two generations, in a 
miserable bondage. Some of them were em- 
ployed as agricultural laborers in the rural dis- 
tricts of Babylon ; others remained in the city, 
and were engaged in servile labors there. The 
prophet Daniel lived in the palaces of the king. 
He was summoned, as the reader will recollect, 
to Belshazzar's feast, on the night when Cyrus 
forced his way into the city, to interpret the 
mysterious writing on the wall, by which the 
fall of the Babylonian monarchy was announced 
in so terrible a manner. 

One year after Cyrus had conquered Babv- 
15 



222 Cviius THE Great. [B.C.53() 

Cyrus takes possession of Babylon, and allows the Jews to return. 

Ion, he issued an edict authorizing the Jews to 
return to Jerusalem, and to rebuild the city and 
the Temple. This event had been long before 
predicted by the prophets, as the result which 
God had determined upon for purposes of his 
own. We should not naturally have expected 
that such a conqueror as Cyrus would feel any 
real and honest interest in promoting the de- 
signs of God ; but still, in the proclamation 
which he issued authorizing the Jews to returi], 
he acknowledged the supreme divinity of Jeho- 
vah, and says that he was charged by him with 
the work of rebuilding his Temple, and restoring 
his worship at its ancient seat on Mount Zion. 
It has, however, been supposed by some schol- 
ars, who have examined attentively all the cir- 
cumstances connected with these transactions, 
that so far as Cyrus was influenced by political 
considerations in ordering the return of the 
Jews, his design was to re-establish that nation 
as a barrier between his dominions and those of 
the Egyptians. The Egyptians and the Chal- 
deans had long been deadly enemies, and now 
that Cyrus had become master of the Chaldean 
realms, he would, of course, in assuming their 
territories and their power, be obliged to defend 
himself against their foes 



B.C.536.] Restoration of the Jews. 223 

Assembling of the Jews. The number that returned. 

Whatever may have been the motives of Cy- 
rus, he decided to allow the Hebrew captives to 
return, and he issued a proclamation to that ef- 
fect. As seventy years had elapsed since the 
captivity commenced, about two generations 
had passed away, and there could have been 
very few then living who had ever seen the land 
of their fathers. The Jews were, however, all 
eager to return. They collected in a vast as- 
sembly, with all the treasures which they were 
allowed to take, and the stores of provisions 
and baggage, and with horses, and mules, and 
other beasts of burden to transport them. When 
assembled for the march, it was found that the 
number, of which a very exact census was tak- 
en, was forty-nine thousand six hundred and 
ninety-seven. 

They had also with them seven or eight hund- 
red horses, about two hundred and fifty mules, 
and about five hundred camels. The chief part, 
however, of their baggage and stores was borne 
by asses, of which there were nearly seven thou- 
sand in the train. The march of this peaceful 
multitude of families — men, women, and chil- 
dren together — burdened as they went, not with 
arms and ammunition for conquest and destruc- 
tion, but vWth tools and implements for honest 



224 Cyrus the Great. [B.C.536. 

Arrival of the caravan at Jerusalem. Building the Temple 

industry, and stores of provisions and utensils 
for the peaceful purposes of social life, as it was^ 
in its bearings and results, one of the grandest 
events of history, so it must have presented, in 
its progress, one of the most extraordinary spec- 
tacles that the world has ever seen. 

The grand caravan pursued its long and toil- 
some march from Babylon to Jerusalem with- 
out mxolestation. All arrived safely, and the 
people immediately commenced the work of 
repairing the walls of the city and rebuilding 
the Temple. When, at length, the foundations 
of the Temple were laid, a great celebration was 
held to commemorate the event. This celebra- 
tion exhibited a remarkable scene of mingled 
rejoicing and mourning. The younger part of 
the population, who had never seen Jerusalem 
in its former grandeur, felt only exhilaration and 
joy at their re-establishment in the city of theii 
fathers. The work of raising the edifice, whose 
foundations they had laid, was to them simply 
a new enterprise, and they looked forward to 
the work of carrying it on with pride and pleas- 
ure. The old m^en, however, who remembered 
the former Temple, were filled with mournful 
recollections of days of prosperity and peace in 
tlieir childhood, and of the magnificence of tbo 



B.C.536.] Restoration of the Jews. 225 

Emotions of the old men. Rejoicings of the young men, 

former Temple, which they could now never 
hope to see realized agaia. It was customary, 
in those days, to express sorrow and grief by 
exclamations and outcries, as gladness and joy 
are expressed audibly now. Accordingly, on 
this occasion, the cries of grief and of bitter re- 
gret at the thought of losses which could now 
never be retrieved, were mingled with the shouts 
of rejoicing and triumph raised by the ardent 
and young, who knew nothing of the past, but 
looked forward with hope and happiness to the 
future. 

The Jews encountered various hinderances, 
and met with much opposition in their attempts 
to reconstruct their ancient city, and to re-es- 
tablish the Mosaic ritual there. We must, how 
ever, now return to the history of Cyrus, refer- 
ring the reader for a narrative of the circum- 
stances connected with the rebuilding of Jeru- 
salem to the very minute account given in tho 
sacred books of Ezra and Nehemiah. 
P 



226 Cyrus the Great. 

Xenophon'e romantic tales. Panthea a Suaian Dciptivo* 



Chapter X. 
The Story of Panthea. 

IN the preceding chapters of this work, we 
have followed mainly the authority of He- 
rodotus, except, indeed, in the account of the 
visit of Cyrus to his grandfather hi his child- 
hood, which is taken from Xenophon. We 
shall, in this chapter, relate the story of Pan- 
thea, which is also one of Xenophon's tales. 
We give it as a specimen of the romantic nar- 
ratives in which Xenophon's history abounds, 
and on account of the many illustrations of an 
cient manners and customs which it contains, 
leaving it for each reader to decide for himself 
what weight he will attach to its claims to be 
regarded as veritable history. We relate tho 
story here in our own language, but as to the 
facts, we follow faithfully the course of Xeno- 
phon's narration. 

Panthea was a Susian captive. She was 
taken, together with a great many other cap- 
tives and much plunder, after one of the great 
battles Vvdiich Cyrus fought with the Assyrians. 



The Story of Pant he a. 227 

Valuable spoil. Its division. Share of Cyrus 

Her husband was an Assyrian general, though 
he himself was not captured at this time with 
his wife. The spoil whi^h came into possession 
of the army on the occasion of the battle in 
which Panthea was taken was of great value. 
There were beautiful and costly suits of arms, 
rich tents made of splendid materials and highly 
ornamented, large sums of money, vessels of 
silver and gold, and slaves — some prized for their 
beauty, and others for certain accomplishments 
which were highly valued in those days. Cy- 
rus appointed a sort of commission to divide this 
spoil. He pursued always a very generous pol- 
icy on all these occasions, showing no desire to 
secure such treasures to himself, but distrib- 
uting them with profuse liberality among his 
officers and soldiers. 

The commissioners whom he appointed in 
this case divided the spoil among the various 
generals of the army, and among the different 
bodies of soldiery, with great impartiality. 
Among the prizes assigned to Cyrus were two 
singing women of great fame, and this Susiaii 
lady. Cyrus thanked the distributors for the 
share of booty which they had thus assigned to 
him, but said that if any of his friends wished 
for either of tliese captives, they could have 



228 Cyrus the Great. 

Fenthea given to Cyrus. Araspes. Abradatea 

them. An officer asked for one of the singers. 
Cyrus gave her to him immediately, saying, "I 
consider myself more obliged to you for asking 
her, than you are to me for giving her to you." 
As for the Susian lady, Cyrus had not yet seen 
her, but he called one of his most intimate and 
confidential friends to him, and requested him 
to take her under his charge. 

The name of this officer was Araspes. He 
v/as a Mede, and he had been Cyrus's particu- 
lar friend and playmate when he was a boy, 
visiting his grandfather in Media. The reader 
will perhaps recollect that he is mentioned to- 
ward the close of our account of that visit, as 
the special favorite to whom Cyrus presented 
his robe or mantle when he took leave of his 
friends in returning to his native land. 

Araspes, when he received this charge, asked 
Cyrus whether he had himself seen the lady. 
Cyrus replied that he had not. Araspes then 
proceeded to give an account of her. The name 
of her husband was Abradates, and he was the 
king of Susa, as they termed him. The reason 
why he was not taken prisoner at the same 
time with his wife was, that when the battle 
was fought and the Assyrian camp captured, 
he was absent, having gone away on an em- 



The Story of Pan the a. 229 

Account of I'anthea's capture. Her gi'eat loveliness. 

bassage to another nation. This circumstance 
shows that Abradates, though called a king, 
could hardly have been a sovereign and inde 
pendent prince, but rather a governor or vice- 
roy — those words expressing to our minds more 
truly the station of such a sort of king as could 
be sent on an embassy. 

Araspes went on to say that, at the time of 
their making the capture, he, with some others, 
went into Panthea's tent, where they found her 
and her attendant ladies sitting on the ground, 
with veils over their faces, patiently awaiting 
their doom. Notwithstanding the concealment 
produced by the attitudes and dress of these la- 
dies, there was something about the air and 
figure of Panthea which showed at once that 
she w^as the queen. The leader of Araspes's 
party asked them all to rise. They did so, and 
then the superiority of Panthea v\^as still more 
apparent than before. There was an extraor- 
dinary grace and beauty in her attitude and in 
all her motions. She stood in a dejected pos- 
ture, and her countenance was sad, though in- 
expressibly lovely. She endeavored to appear 
calm and composed, though the tears had evi- 
dently been falling from her eyes. 

The soldiers pitied her in her distress, and 



230 Cyrus the Great 

ittempts at consolation. Panthea's renewed grief 

the leader of the party attempted to console her, 
as Araspes said, by telling her that she had 
nothing to fear ; that they were aware that her 
husband was a most worthy and excellent man ; 
and although, by this capture, she was lost to 
him, she would have no cause to regret the 
event, for she would be reserved for a new hus- 
band not at all inferior to her former one either 
in person, in understanding, in rank, or in power. 

These well-meant attempts at consolation did 
not appear to have the good effect desired. 
They only awakened Panthea's grief and suf- 
fering anew. The tears began to fall again 
faster than before. Her grief soon became more 
and more uncontrollable. She sobbed and cried 
aloud, and began to wring her hands and tear her 
mantle — the customary Oriental expression of 
inconsolable sorrow and despair. Araspes said 
that in these gesticulations her neck, and hands, 
and a part of her face appeared, and that she 
was the most beautiful woman that he had ever 
beheld. He wished Cyrus to eee her. 

Cyrus said, ''No; he would not see her by 
any means." Araspes asked him why. He 
said that there would be danger that he should 
forget liis duty to the army, and lose his inter- 
est in the great military enterprise in which he 



The Story of Panthea. 2dl 



Cyras declines to see Panthea. His reasons. 

was engaged, if he should allow himself to be- 
come captivated by the charms of such a lady^ 
as he very probably would be if he were now to 
visit her. Araspes said in reply that Cyrus 
might at least see her ; as to becoming capti- 
vated with her, and devoting himself to her to 
such a degree as to neglect his other duties, he 
could certainly control himself in respect to that 
danger. Cyrus said that it was not certain 
that he could so control himself; and then there 
followed a long discussion between Cyrus and 
Araspes, in which Araspes maintained that ev- 
ery man had the command of his own heart and 
affections, and that, with proper determination 
and energy, he could direct the channels in 
which they should run, and confine them with- 
in such limits and bounds as he pleased. Cy- 
rus, on the other hand, maintained that human 
passions were stronger than the human will ; 
that no one could rely on the strength of his 
resolutions to control the impulses of the heart 
once strongly excited, and that a man's only 
safety v/as in controlling the circumstances 
which tended to excite them. This was spe- 
cially true, he said, in respect to the passion of 
love. The experience of mankind, he said, had 
shown that no strength of moral principle, no 



232 Cyrus the Great. 

Araspes's self-confidence. Panthea's patience and gentleness. 

firmness of purpose, no fixedness of resolution^ 
no degree of suffering, no fear of shame, was 
sufficient to control, in the hearts of men. the 
impetuosity of the passion of love, when it was 
once fairly awakened. In a word, Araspes ad- 
vocated, on the subject of love, a sort of new 
school philosophy, while that of Cyrus leaned 
very seriously toward the old. 

In conclusion, Cyrus jocosely counseled Aras- 
pes to beware lest he should prove that love was 
stronger than the will by becoming himself 
enamored of the beautiful Susian queen. Aras- 
pes said that Cyrus need not fear ; there was 
no danger. He must be a miserable wretch 
indeed, he said, who could not summon within 
him sufficient resolution and energy to control 
his own passions and desires. As for himself^ 
he was sure that he was safe. 

As usual with those who are self-confident 
and boastful, Araspes failed when the time of 
trial came. He took charge of the royal cap- 
tive whom Cyrus committed to him with a very 
firm resolution to be faithful to his trust. He 
pitied the unhappy queen's misfortunes, and 
admired the heroic patience and gentleness of 
spirit v/ith which she bore them. The beauty 
of her countenance, and her thousand personal 



The Story of Panthea. 233 

Araspes's kindness to Panthea. His emotions master hiiu. 

charms, which were all heightened by the ex- 
pression of sadness and sorrow which they bore, 
touched his heart. It gave him pleasure to 
grant her every indulgence consistent with her 
condition of captivity, and to do every thing in 
his power to promote her welfare. She was 
V3ry grateful for these favors, and the few brief 
words and looks of kindness with which she re- 
turned them repaid him for his efforts to please 
her a thousand-fold. He saw her, too, in her 
tent, in the presence of her maidens, at all 
times ; and as she looked upon him as only her 
custodian and guard, and as, too, her mind was 
wholly occupied by the thoughts of her absent 
husband and her hopeless grief, her actions were 
entirely free and unconstrained in his presence. 
This made her only the more attractive ; every 
attitude and movement seemed to possess, in 
Araspes's mind, an inexpressible charm. In a 
word, the result was what Cyrus had predicted, 
Araspes became wholly absorbed in the interest 
which was awakened in him by the charms of 
the beautiful captive. He made many resolu- 
tions, but they were of no avail. While he was 
away from her, he felt strong in his determina- 
tion to yield to these feelings no more ; but as 
soon as he came into her presence, all these res- 



234 Cyrus the Great 

Araspes in love. Progress of the army 

olutions melted wholly away, and he yielded 
his heart entirely to the control of emotions 
which, however vincible they might appear at 
a distance, were found, when the time of trial 
camie, to possess a certain mysterious and mag- 
ic power, which made it most delightful for the 
heart to yield before them in the contest, and 
utterly impossible to stand firm and resist. In 
a word, w^hen seen at a distance, love appeared 
to him an enemy which he was ready to brave, 
and was sure that he could overcome ; but when 
near, it transformed itself into the guise of a 
friend, and he accordingly threw down the arms 
with which he had intended to combat it, and 
gave himself up to it in a delirium of pleas- 
ure. 

Things continued in this state for some time. 
The army advanced from post to post, and from 
encampment to encampment, taking the cap- 
tives in their train. New cities were taken, 
new provinces overrun, and new plans for future 
conquests were formed. At last a case ooeur- 
red in which Cyrus wished to send some one 
as a spy into a distant enemy's country. The 
circumstances were such that it was necessary 
that a person of considerable intelligence and 
rank should go, as Cyrus wished the messenger 



The Story of Panthea. 235 

Araapes confesses his love. Panthea offended. 

whom he should send to make his way to the 
court of the sovereign, and become personally 
acquainted with the leading men of the state, 
and to examine the general resources of the 
kingdom. It was a very different case from 
chat of an ordinary spy, who was to go into a 
neighboring camp merely to report the num- 
bers and disposition of an organized army. Cy- 
rus was uncertain whom he should send on such 
an embassy. 

In the mean time, Araspes had ventured to 
express to Panthea his love for her. She was 
offended. In the first place, she was faithful to 
her husband, and did not wish to receive such 
addresses from any person. Then, besides, 
she considered Araspes, having been placed in 
charge of her by Cyrus, his master, only for the 
purpose of keeping her safely, as guilty of a 
betrayal of his trust in having dared to cherish 
and express sentiments of affection for her him- 
self. She, however, forbore to reproach him, 
cr to complain of him to Cyrus. She simply 
repelled the advances that he made, supposing 
that, if she did this with firmness and decision, 
Araspes would feel rebuked and would say nn 
more. It did not, however, produce this effect. 
Araspes continued to importune her with dec- 



236 Cyrus the Great. 

Panthea appeals to Cyrus. Cyrus reproves Araspea 

larations of love, and at length she felt com- 
pelled to appeal to Cyrus. 

Cyrus, instead of being incensed at what 
might have been considered a betrayal of trust 
on the part of Araspes, only laughed at the fail- 
ure and fall in which all his favorite's promises 
and boastings had ended. He sent a messen- 
ger to Araspes to caution him in regard to his 
conduct, telling him that he ought to respect 
the feelings of such a woman as Panthea had 
proved herself to be. The messenger whom 
Cyrus sent was not content with delivering his 
message as Cyrus had dictated it. He made it 
much more stern and severe. In fact, he re- 
proached the lover, in a very harsh and bitter 
manner, for indulging such a passion. He told 
him that he had betrayed a sacred trust reposed 
in him, and acted in a manner at once impious 
and unjust. Araspes was overwhelmed with 
remorse and anguish, and with fear of the con- 
sequences which might ensue, as men are when 
the time arrives for being called to account for 
transgressions which, while they were commit- 
ting them, gave them little concern. 

When Cyrus heard how much Araspes had 
been distressed by the message of reproof which 
he had received, and by his fears of punishment. 



The Story of Panthea. 237 

Cyrus's generosity. Araspes's continued distress 

he sent for him. Araspes came. Cyrus told 
him that he had no occasion to be alarmed. ''I 
do not wonder," said he, '' at the result which 
has happened. We all know how difficult it is 
to resist the influence which is exerted upon our 
minds by the charms of a beautiful woman, 
when we are thrown into circumstances of 
familiar intercourse with her. Whatever of 
wrong there has been ought to be considered 
as more my fault than yours. I was wrong in 
placing you in such circumstances of tempta- 
tion, by giving you so beautiful a woman in 
charge." 

Araspes was very much struck with the gen- 
erosity of Cyrus, in thus endeavoring to soothe 
his anxiety and remorse, and taking upon him- 
self the responsibility and the blame. He 
thanked Cyrus very earnestly for his kindness ; 
but he said that, notwithstanding his sovereign's 
willingness to forgive him, he felt still oppressed 
with grief and concern, for the knowledge of 
his fault had been spread abroad in the army ; 
his enemies were rejoicing over him, and were 
predicting his disgrace and ruin ; and some per- 
sons had even advised him to make his escape, 
by absconding before any worse calamity should 
befall him. 
16 



238 Cyrus the Gtreat. 

Plan of Cyrus. Araspes pretends to desert 

^'If this is so," said Cyrus, ^^it puts it in 
your power to render me a very essential serv- 
ice." Cyrus then explained to Araspes the 
necessity that he was under of finding some 
confidential agent to go on a secret mission into 
the enemy's country, and the importance that 
the messenger should go under such circum- 
stances as not to be suspected of being Cyrus's 
friend in disguise. ^^You can pretend to ab- 
scond," said he; ''it will be immediately said 
that you fled for fear of my displeasure. I will 
pretend to send in pursuit of you. The news 
of your evasion will spread rapidly, and will be 
carried, doubtless, into the enemy's country ; so 
that, when you arrive there, they will be pre- 
pared to welcome you as a deserter from my 
cause, and a refugee." 

This plan was agreed upon, and Araspes pre- 
pared for his departure. Cyrus gave him his 
instructions, and they concerted together the in- 
fornaation — fictitious, of course — which he was 
to communicate to the enemy in respect to Cy- 
rus's situation and designs. When all was 
ready for his departure, Cyrus asked him how 
it was that he was so willing to separate himself 
thus from the beautiful Panthea. ITe said in 
reply, that when he was absent from Panthea, 



The Story of Panthea. 239 

Panthea proposes to seud for her husband. Cyrus consents. 

he was capable of easily forming any determin- 
ation, and of pursuing any line of conduct that 
his duty required, while yet, in her presence, he 
found his love for her, and the impetuous feel- 
iiigs to which it gave rise, wholly and absolute- 
1} uncontrollable. 

As soon as Araspes was gone, Panthea, who 
supposed that he had really fled for fear of the 
indignation of the king, in consequence of his 
unfaithfulness to his trust, sent to Cyrus a meS' 
sage, expressing her regret at the unworthy con- 
duct and the flight of Araspes, and saying thai 
she could, and gladly would, if he consented, 
repair the loss which the desertion of Araspes 
occasioned by sending for her own husband. 
He was, she said, dissatisfied with the govern- 
ment under which he lived, having been cruelly 
and tyrannically treated by the prince. " If 
you will allow me to send for him," she added, 
'^ I am sure he will come and join your army ; 
and I assure you that you will find him a much 
more faithful and devoted servant than Araspes 
has been." 

Cyrus consented to this proposal, and Pan 
thea sent for Abradates. Abradates came at 
the head of two thousand horse, which formed 
a very important additirm to the forces under 



240 Cyrus the Great. 

Joyful meeting of Panthea and her husband. The armed chariots. 

Cyrus's command. The meeting between Pan- 
thea and her husband was joyful m the extrema 
When Abradates learned from his wife how hon- 
orable and kind had been the treatment which 
Cyrus had rendered to her, he was overwhelmed 
with a sense of gratitude, and he declared that 
he would do the utmost in his power to requite 
the obligations he was under. 

Abradates entered at once, with great ardor 
and zeal, into plans for making the force which 
he had brought as efficient as possible in the 
service of Cyrus. He observed that Cyrus was 
interested, at that time, in attempting to build 
and equip a corps of armed chariots, such as 
were often used in fields of battle in those days. 
This was a very expensive sort of force, corre- 
ponding, in that respect, with the artillery used 
in modern times. The carriages were heavy 
and strong, and were drawn generally by two 
horses. They had short, scythe-like blades of 
steel projecting from the axle-trees on each side, 
by which the ranks of the enemy were mowed 
down when the carriages were driven among 
them. The chariots were made to contain, be- 
sides the driver of the horses, one or more war- 
riors, each armed in the completest manner 
These warriors stood on the floor of the vehicle, 



The Story of Panthea. 243 

Abradates's eight-horse chariot. Panthea's presents for her husband. 

and fought with javelins and spears. The great 
plains which abound in the interior countries 
of Asia were very favorable for this species o^ 
warfare. 

Abradates immediately fitted up for Cyras a 
hundred such chariots at his own expense, and 
provided horses to draw them from his own 
troop. He made one chariot much larger than 
the rest, for himself, as he intended to take 
command of this corps of chariots in person. 
His own chariot was to be drawn by eight 
horses. His wife Panthea was very much in- 
terested in these preparations. She wished to 
do something herself toward the outfit. She 
accordingly furnished, from her own private 
treasures, a helmet, a corslet, and arm-pieces 
of gold. These articles formed a suit of armor 
sufiicient to cover all that part of the body 
which would be exposed in standing in the 
chariot. She also provided breast-pieces and 
side-pieces of brass for the horses. The whole 
chariot, thus equipped, with its eight horses in 
their gay trappings and resplendent armor, and 
with Abradates standing within it, clothed in 
his panoply of gold, presented, as it drove, in the 
sight of the whole army, ai'ound the plain of 
the encampment, a most imposing spectacle* 



244 Cyrus the Great. 

Imposing spectacle. Panthea's preparationa 

It was a worthy leader, as the spectators thought, 
to head the formidable column of a hundred 
similar engines which were to follow in its 
train. If we imagine the havoc which a hund- 
red scythe-armed carriages would produce when 
driven, with headlong fury, into dense masses of 
men, on a vast open plain, we shall have som3 
idea of one item of the horrors of ancient war. 
The full splendor of Abradates's equipments 
were not, however, displayed at first, for Pan- 
thea kept what she had done a secret for a 
time, intending to reserve her contribution for 
a parting present to her husband when the pe- 
riod should arrive for going into battle. She 
had accordingly taken the measure for her work 
by stealth, from the armor which Abradates 
was accustomed to wear, and had caused the 
artificers to make the golden pieces with the 
utmost secrecy. Besides the substantial de- 
fenses of gold which she provided, she added 
various other articles for ornament and decora- 
tion. There was a purple robe, a crest for the 
helmet, which was of a violet color, plumes, 
and likewise bracelets for the wrists. Panthea 
kept all these things herself until the day ar- 
rived when her husband was going into battle 
for the first time with his train, and then, when 



The Story of Panthea. 246 

Panthea offers her presents. Abradates's pleasure 

he went into his tent to prepare himself to as- 
cend his chariot, she brought them to him. 

Abradates was astonished when he saw them 
He soon understood how they had been provid- 
ed, and he exclaimed, with a heart full of sur- 
prise and pleasure, "And so, to provide me 
with this splendid armor and dress, you have 
been depriving yourself of all your finest and 
most beautiful ornaments I" 

"No," said Panthea, "you are yourself my 
finest ornament, if you appear in other people's 
eyes as you do in mine, and I have not depriv- 
ed myself of you." 

The appearance which Abradates made in 
other people's eyes was certainly very splendid 
on this occasion. There were many spectators 
present to see him mount his chariot and drive 
av/ay ; but so great was their admiration of 
Panthea's affection and regard for her husband, 
and so much impressed were they with her 
beauty, that the great chariot, the resplendent 
horses, and the grand warrior with his armor of 
gold, which the magnificent equipage was in- 
tended to convey, were, all together, scarcely 
able to draw av/ay the eyes of the spectators 
from her. She stood, for a while, by the side 
of the chariot, addressing her husband in an un> 



246 Cyrus the Great 

Abradates departs for the field. The farewell 

der tone, reminding him of the obligations which 
they were under to Cyrus for his generous and 
noble treatment of her, and urging him, now 
that he was going to be put to the test, to re- 
deem the promise which she had made in his 
name, that Cyrus would find him faithful, 
brave, and true. 

The driver then closed the door by which Ab- 
radates had mounted, so that Panthea was sep- 
arated from her husband, though she could still 
see him as he stood in his place. She gazed 
upon him with a countenance full of affection 
and solicitude. She k'ssed the margin of the 
chariot as it began to move away. She walked 
along after it as it went, as if, after all, she 
could not bear the separation. Abradates turn- 
ed, and when he saw her coming on after the 
carriage, he said, waving his hand for a parting 
salutation, ''Farewell, Panthea; go back now 
to your tent, and do not be anxious about me. 
Farewell." Panthea turned — her attendants 
came and took her away — the spectators all 
turned, too, to follow her with their eyes, and 
no one paid any regard to the chariot or to Ab- 
radates until she was gone. 

On the field of battle, before the engagement 
commenced, Cyrus, in passing along the lines, 



The Story of Panthea. 247 

The order of battle. Appearance of Abradates 

paused, when he came to the chariots of Abra- 
dates, to examine the arrangements which had 
been made for them, and to converse a moment 
with the chief. He saw that the chariots were 
drawn up in a part of the field where there was 
opposed to them a very formidable array of 
Egyptian soldiers. The Egyptians in this war 
were allies of the enemy. Abradates, leaving 
his chariot in the charge of his driver, descend- 
ed and came to Cyrus, and remained in conver- 
sation with him for a few moments, to receive 
his last orders. Cyrus directed him to remain 
where he was, and not to attack the enemy 
until he received a certain signal. At length 
the two chieftains separated ; Abradates return- 
ed to his chariot, and Cyrus moved on. Ab- 
radates then moved slowly along his lines, to 
encourage and animate his men, and to give 
them the last directions in respect to the charge 
which they were about to make on the enemy 
when the signal should be given. All eyes were 
turned to the magnificent spectacle which his 
equipage presented as it advanced toward them ; 
the chariot, moving slowly along the line, the 
tall and highly-decorated form of its commander 
rising in the center of it; while the eight horses, 
animated by the sound of the trumpets, and hv 



248 Cyrus the Great. 

The charge. Terrible havoc made by the chariots. 

the various excitements of the scene, stepped 
proudly, their brazen armor clanking as they 
came. 

When, at length, the signal was given, Ab« 
radates, calling on the other chariots to follow, 
put his horses to their speed, and the whole 
line rushed impetuously on to the attack of the 
Egyptians. War horses, properly trained to 
their work, will fight with their hoofs with al- 
most as much reckless determination as men 
will with spears. They rush madly on to en- 
counter whatever opposition there may be before 
them, and strike down and leap over whatever 
comes in their way, as if they fully understood 
the nature of the work that their riders or 
drivers were wishing them to do. Cyrus, as 
he passed along from one part of the battle field 
to another, saw the horses of Abradates's line 
dashing thus impetuously into the thickest 
ranks of the enemy. The men, on every side, 
were beaten down by the horses' hoofs, or over- 
turned by the wheels, or cut down by the 
scythes; and they who here and there escaped 
these dangers, became the aim of the soldiers 
who stood in the chariots, and were transfixed 
with their spears. The heavy wheels rolled 
and jolted mercilessly over the bodies of tho 



The Story of Panthea. 249 

The great victory. The council ol war. 

wounded and the fallen, while the scythes 
caught hold of and cut through every thing 
that came in their way — w^hether the shafts of 
javelins and spears, or the limbs and bodies of 
men — and tore every thing to pieces in their ter- 
rible career. As Cyrus rode rapidly by, he saw 
A.bradates in the midst of this scene, driving on 
in his chariot, and shouting to his men in a 
phrensy of excitement and triumph. 

The battle in which these events occurred 
was one of the greatest and most important 
which Cyrus fought. He gained the victory. 
His enemies were every where routed and driv- 
en from the field. When the contest was at 
length decided, the army desisted from the 
slaughter and encamped for the night. On 
the following day, the generals assembled at 
the tent of Cyrus to discuss the arrangements 
which were to be made in respect to the dispo- 
sition of the captives and of the spoil, and to 
the future movements of the army. Abradates 
was not there. For a time, Cyrus, in the ex- 
citement and confusion of the scene, did not ob- 
serve his absence. At length he inquired for 
him. A soldier present told him that he had 
been killed from his chariot in the midst of the 
Egyptians, and that his wife- was at that mo- 



250 Cyrus the Great. 

Abradates slain. Panthea's grief 

ment attending to the interment of the body, 
on the banks of a river which flowed near the 
field of battle. Cyrus, on hearing this, uttered 
a loud exclamation of astonishment and sorrow* 
He dropped the business in which he had been 
engaged with his council, mounted his horse, 
commanded attendants to follow him with every 
thing that could be necessary on such an occa- 
sion, and then, asking those who knew to lead 
the way, he drove off to find Panthea. 

When he arrived at the spot, the dead body 
of Abradates was lying upon the ground, while 
Panthea sat by its side, holding the head in her 
lap, overwhelmed herself with unutterable sor- 
row. Cyrus leaped from his horse, knelt down 
by the side of the corpse, saying, at the same 
time, " Alas ! thou brave and faithful soul, and 
art thou gone ?" 

At the same time, he took hold of the hand 
of Abradates ; but, as he attempted to raise it, 
the arm came away from the body. It had 
been cut off* by an Egyptian sword. Cyrus waa 
himself shocked at the spectacle, and Panthea's 
grief broke forth anew. She cried out with bit- 
ter anguish, replaced the aim in the position in 
which she had arranged it before, and told 
Cyrus that the rest of the body was in the 



The Story of Panthea. 251 

Cyrus's kindness to Panthea. She is inconsolable. 

same condition. Whenever she attempted to 
speak, her sobs and tears almost prevented her 
utterance. She bitterly reproached herself foi 
having been, perhaps, the cause of her husband's 
death, by urging him, as she had done, to fidel- 
ity and courage v^hen he went into battle 
" And now," she said, '' he is dead, while I^ 
who urged him forward into the danger, am 
still alive." 

Cyrus said what he could to console Pan- 
thea's grief; but he found it utterly inconsola- 
ble. He gave directions for furnishing her with 
every thing which she could need, and promis- 
ed her that he would make ample arrangements 
for providing for her in future. "You shall be 
treated," he said, "while you remain with me, 
in the most honorable manner ; or if you have 
any friends whom you wish to join, you shall 
be sent to them safely whenever you please." 

Panthea thanked him for his kindness. She 
had a friend, she said, whom she wished to join, 
and she would let him know in due time who 
it was. In the mean time, she wished that 
Cyrus would leave her alone, for a while, with 
her servants, and her waiting-maid, and the 
dead body of her husband. Cyrus accordingly 
withdrew. As soon as he had gone, Panthea 



252 Cyrus the Great. 

Panthea kills herself on the dead body of her husband. 

sent away the servants also, retaining the wait- 
ing-maid alone. The waiting-maid began to 
be anxious and concerned at witnessing these 
mysterious arrangements, as if they portended 
some new calamity. She wondered what her 
mistress was going to do. Her doubts were 
dispelled by seeing Panthea produce a sword, 
which she had kept concealed hitherto beneath 
her robe. Her maid begged her, with much 
earnestness and many tears, not to destroy her- 
self ; but Panthea was immovable. She said 
she could not live any longer. She directed the 
maid to envelop her body, as soon as she was 
dead, in the same mantle with her husband, 
and to have them both deposited together in the 
same grave ; and before her stupefied attendant 
tould do any thing to save her, she sat down by 
ihe side of her husband's body, laid her head 
upon his breast, and in that position gave her- 
self the fatal wound. In a few minutes she 
ceased to breathe. 

Cyrus expressed his respect for the memory 
of Abradates and Panthea by erecting a lofty 
monument over their common grave. 



Conversations. 253 

Gfcnoral character of Xenophon's history. Dialogues and couversations. 



Chapter XI. 

Conversations. 

"T^TE have given the story of Panthea, as 
' ^ contained in the preceding chapter, in 
our own language, it is true, but without any 
intentional addition or embellishment whatever. 
Each reader will judge for himself whether 
such a narrative, written for the entertainment 
of vast assemblies at public games and cele- 
brations, is most properly to be regarded as an 
invention of romance, or as a simple record oi 
veritable history. 

A great many extraordinary and dramatic 
incidents and adventures, similar in general 
character to the story of Panthea, are inter- 
woven with the narrative in Xenophon's his- 
tory. There are also, besides these, many long 
and minute details of dialogues and conversa- 
tions, which, if they had really occurred, would 
have required a very high degree of skill in ste- 
nography to- produce such reports of them as 
Xenophon has given. The incidents, too, out of 
which these conversations grew, are worthy of 
17 



254 Cyrus the Great. 

Ancient mode of discussion. Cyrus's games, 

attention, as we can often judge, by the nature 
and character of an incident described, whether 
it is one which it is probable might actually oc- 
cur in real life, or only an invention intended to 
furnish an opportunity and a pretext for the in- 
culcation of the sentiments, or the expression of 
the views of the different speakers. It was the 
custom in ancient days, much more than it is 
now, to attempt to add to the point and. spirit of 
a discussion, by presenting the various views 
which the subject naturally elicited in the form 
of a conversation arising out of circumstances 
invented, to sustain it. The incident in such 
cases was, of course, a fiction, contrived to fur- 
nish points of attachment for the dialogue — a 
sort of trellis, constructed artificially to support 
the vine. 

We shall present in this chapter some speci- 
mens of these conversations, which will give the 
reader a much more distinct idea of the nature 
of them than any general description can con- 
vey. 

At one time in the course of Cyrus's career, 
just after he had obtained some gieat victory, 
and was celebrating his triumphs, in the midst 
of his armies, with spectacles and games, he 
instituted a series of races, in which the various 



Conversations. 255 

Grand procession. The races. The Sacian. His success 

nations that were represented in his army fur- 
nished their several champions as competitors 
The army marched out from the city which 
Cyrus had captured, and where he was then 
residing, in a procession of the most imposing 
magnificence. Animals intended to be offered 
in sacrifice, caparisoned in trappings of gold, 
horsemen most sumptuously equipped, chariots 
of war splendidly built and adorned, and ban- 
ners and trophies of every kind, were conspicu- 
ous in the train. When the vast procession 
reached the race-ground, the immense concourse 
was formed in ranks around it, and the racing 
went on. 

When it came to the turn of the Sacian 
nation to enter the course, a private man, of 
no apparent importance in respect to his rank 
or standing, came forward as the champion; 
though the man appeared insignificant, his horse 
w^as as fleet as the wind. He flew around the 
arena with astonishing speed, and came in at 
the goal while his competitor was still midway 
of the course. Every body was astonished at 
this performance. Cyrus asked the Sacian 
whether he would be willing to sell that horse, 
if he could receive a kingdom in exchange for 
it — kingdoms being the coin with which such. 



256 Cyrus the Great 



Mode of finding a worthy man. Pheraulas woun.ied 

sovereigns as Cyrus made their purchases. The 
Sacian replied that he would not sell his horsa 
for any kingdom, but that he would readily give 
him away to oblige a worthy man. 

'^ Come with me," said Cyrus, '^ and I will 
show you where you may throw blindfold, and 
not miss a worthy man." 

So saying, Cyrus conducted the Sacian to a 
part of the field where a number of his officers 
and attendants were moving to and fro, mount- 
ed upon their horses, or seated in their chariots 
of war. The Sacian took up a hard clod of 
earth from a bank as he walked along. At 
length they were in the midst of the group. 

''Throw!" said Cyrus. 

The Sacian shut his eyes and threw. 

It happened that, just at that instant, an of- 
ficer named Pheraulas was riding by. He was 
conveying some orders which Cyrus had given 
him to another part of the field. Pheraulas had 
been originally a man of humble life, but he had 
been advanced by Cyrus to a high position on 
account of the great fidelity and zeal which he 
had evinced in the performance of his duty. 
The clod which the Sacian threw struck Phe- 
raulas in the mouth, and wounded him severely. 
Now it is the part of a good soldier to stand at 



CONVERSATICNS. 257 

Pheraules pursues his course. He receives the Sacian's horse- 

his post or to press on, in obedience to his or- 
ders, as long as any pnysical capacity remains; 
and Pheraulas, true to his military obligation, 
rode on without even turning to see whence and 
from what cause so unexpected and violent an 
assault had proceeded. 

The Sacian opened his eyes, looked around, 
and coolly asked who it was that he had hit. 
Cyrus pointed to the horseman who was riding 
rapidly away, saying, " That is the man, who is 
riding so fast past those chariots yonder. You 
hit himy 

^'Why did he not turn back, then?" asked 
the Sacian. 

" It is strange that he did not," said Cyrus ; 
^'he must be some madman." 

The Sacian went in pursuit of him. He 
found Pheraulas with his face covered with blood 
and dirt, and asked him if he had received a 
blow. " I have," said Pheraulas, '^ as you see." 
'* Then," said the Sacian, '^ I make you a pres- 
ent of my horse." Pheraulas asked an explan- 
ation. The Sacian accordingly gave him an ac- 
count of what had taken place between himself 
and Cyrus, and said, in the end, that he gladly 
gave him his horse, as he, Pheraulas, had so de- 
cisively proved himself to be a most worthy man 
R 



258 Cyrus the Great. 

Sumptuous entertainment. Pheraules and tbe Saciaa 

Pheraulas accepted the present, with many 
thanks, and he and the Sacian became there- 
after very strong friends. 

Some time after this, Pheraulas invited the 
Sacian to an entertainment, and when the hour 
arrived, he set before his friend and the other 
guests a most sumptuous feast, which was serv- 
ed in vessels of gold and silver, and in an apart- 
ment furnished with carpets, and canopies, and 
couches of the most gorgeous and splendid de- 
scription. The Sacian was much impressed 
with this magnificence, and he asked Pheraulas 
whether he had been a rich man at home, thai 
is, before he had joined Cyrus's army. Phe- 
raulas replied that he was not then rich. His 
father, he said, was a farmer, and he himself 
had been accustomed in early life to till the 
ground with the other laborers on his father's 
farm. All the wealth and luxury which he now 
enjoyed had been bestowed upon him, he said, 
by Cyrus. 

" How fortunate you are !" said the Sacian ; 
^' and it must be that you enjoy your present 
riches all the more highly on account of having 
experienced in early life the inconveniences and 
ills of poverty. The pleasure must be more 
intense in having desires which have long been 



Conversations 259 

Richeo a source of disquiet and care. Argument of Phef aulas. 

felt gratified at last than if the objects which 
they rested upon had been always in one's pos- 
session." 

'' You imagine, I suppose," replied Pherau- 
las, ^'that I am a great deal happier in conse- 
quence of all this wealth and splendor ; but it is 
not so. As to the real enjoyments of which our 
natures are capable, I can not receive more now 
than I could before. I can not eat any more, 
drink any more, or sleep any more, or do any 
of these things with any more pleasure than 
when I was poor. All that I gain by this 
abundance is, that I have more to v/atch, more 
to guard, more to take care of. I have many 
servants, for whose wants I have to provide, and 
who are a constant source of solicitude to me 
One calls for food, another for clothes, and a 
third is sick, and I must see that he has a phy- 
sician. My other possessions, too, are a con- 
stant care. A man comes in, one day, and 
brings me sheep that have been torn by the 
wolves ; and, on another day, tells me of oxen 
that have fallen from a precipice, or of ^a dis- 
temper which has broken out among the flocks 
or herds. My wealth, therefore, brings me only 
an increase of anxiety and trouble, without an^ 
addition to my joys." 



260 Cyrus the Great. 

Remark of the Sacian. Reply of PberaulaSv 

" Bat those things," said the Sacian, '^ which 
you name, must be unusual and extraordinary 
occurrences. When all tilings are going on 
prosperously and well with you, and you can 
look around on all your possessions and feel that 
they are yours, then certainly you must be hap- 
pier than I am." 

''It is true," said Phei^aulas, ''that there is 
a pleasure in the possession of wealth, but that 
pleasure is not great enough to balance the suf- 
fering which the calamities and losses inevita- 
bly connected with it occasion. That the suf- 
fering occasioned by losing our possessions is 
greater than the pleasure of retaining them, is 
proved by the fact that the pain of a loss is so 
exciting to the mind that it often deprives men 
of sleep, while they enjoy the most calm and 
quiet repose so long as their possessions are re- 
tained, which proves that the pleasure does not 
move them so deeply. They are kept awake 
by the vexation and chagrin on the one hand, 
but they are never kept awake by the satisfac- 
tion on the other." 

" That is true," replied the Sacian. " Men 
are not kept awake by the mere continuing to 
possess their wealth, but they very often are by 
the original acquisition of it." 



Conversations. 26] 

Singular proposal of Pheraulas. The Sacian accepts it 

^'Yes, indeed," replied Pheraulas; ^'and if 
the enjoyment of being rich could always con- 
tinue as great as that of first becoming so, the 
rich would, I admit, be very happy men ; but 
it is not, and can not be so. They who possess 
much, must lose, and expend, and give much ; 
and this necessity brings more of pain than the 
possessions themselves can give of pleasure." 

The Sacian was not convinced. The giving 
and expending, he maintained, would be to him, 
in itself, a source of pleasure. He should like 
to have much, for the very purpose of being 
able to expend much. Finally, Pheraulas pro- 
posed to the Sacian, since he seemed to think 
that riches would afford him so much pleasure, 
and as he himself, Pheraulas, found the posses- 
sion of them only a source of trouble and care^ 
that he would convey all his wealth to the Sa- 
cian, he himself to receive only an ordinary 
maintenance from it. 

^' You are in jest," said the Sacian. 

^'No," said Pheraulas, '^I am in earnest." 
And he renewed his proposition, and pressed 
the Sacian urgently to accept of it. 

The Sacian then said that nothing could give 
him greater pleasure than such an arrange- 
ment. He expressed great gratitude for so gen- 



262 Cyrus the Great. 

The plan carried into effect. The happy result 

erous an offer, and promised that, if he received 
the property, he would furnish Pheraulas with 
most ample and abundant supplies for all his 
wants, and would relieve him entirely of all re- 
sponsibility and care. He promised, moreover, 
to obtain from Cyrus permission that Pheraulas 
should thereafter be excused from the duties of 
military service, and from all the toils, priva- 
tions, and hardships of war, so that he might 
thenceforth lead a hfe of quiet, luxury, and 
ease, and thus live in the enjoyment of all the 
benefits which wealth could procure, without 
its anxieties and cares. 

The plan, thus arranged, was carried into ef- 
fect. Pheraulas divested himself of his posses- 
.sions, conveying them all to the Sacian. Both 
parties were extremely pleased with the opera- 
tion of the scheme, and they lived thus together 
for a long time. Whatever Pheraulas acquired 
in any way, he always brought to the Sacian, 
and the Sacian, by accepting it, relieved Phe- 
raulas of all responsibility and care. The Sa- 
cian loved Pheraulas, as Herodotus says, in 
closing this narrative, because he was thus con- 
tinually bringing him gifts ; and Pheraulas lov- 
ed the Sacian, because he was always willing to 
take the gifts which were thus brought to him. 



CoNM E USA r IONS. 263 



Cyrus's dinner party. Conversation about soldiers. 

Among the other conversations, whether real 
or imaginary, which Herodotus records, he gives 
some specimens of those which took place at 
festive entertainments in Cyrus's tent, on occa- 
sions when he invited his officers to dine with 
him. He commenced the conversation, on one 
of these occasions, by inquiring of some of the 
officers present whether they did not think that 
the common soldiers were equal to the officers 
themselves in intelligence, courage, and mili- 
tary skill, and in all the other substantial qual- 
ities of a good soldier. 

"I know not how that may be," replied one 
of the officers. '' How they will prove when 
they come into action with the enemy, I can 
not tell ; but a more perverse and churlish set 
of fellows in camp, than those I have got in my 
regiment, I never knew. The other day, for 
example, when there had been a sacrifice, the 
meat of the victims was sent around to be dis- 
tributed to the soldiers. In our regiment, when 
the steward came in with the first distribution, 
he began by me, and so went round, as far as 
what he had brought v/ould go. The next time 
he came, he began at the other end. The sup- 
ply failed before he had got to the place where 
he had left off before, so that there was a man 



264 Cyrus the Great. 

The discoutented soldier. His repeated raisfortunes- 



in the middle that did not get any thing. This 
man immediately broke out in loud and angry 
complaints, and declared that there was no 
equality or fairness whatever in such a mode 
of division, unless they began sometimes in the 
center oi the line. 

''' Upon this," continued the officer, '^ I called 
to the discontented man, and invited him to 
come and sit by me, where he would have a 
better chance for a good share. He did so. It 
happened that, at the next distribution that was 
made, we were the last, and he fancied that 
only the smallest pieces were left, so he began 
to complain more than before. ' Oh. miser v !' 
said he, ' that I should have to sit here !' ' J3e 
patient,' said I; 'pretty soon they will begin 
the distribution with us, and then you will 
have the best chance of all.' And so it proved ; 
for, at the next distribution, they began at us, 
and the man took his share first ; but when the 
second and third men took theirs, he fancied 
that their pieces looked larger than his, and he 
reached forward and put his piece back into the 
basket, intending to change it ; but the steward 
moved rapidly on, and he did not get another, so 
that he lost his distribution altogether. He was 
then quite furious with rage and vexation." 



Conversations. 265 

AmusemeEt of the party. The awkward squad, 

Cyrus and all the company laughed very 
heartily at these mischances of greediness and 
discontent ; and then other stories, of a some- 
what similar character, were told by other 
guests. One officer said that a few days pre- 
vious he was drilling a part of his troops, and 
he had before him on the plain what is called, 
in military language, a squad of men, whom he 
was teaching to march. When he gave the 
order to advance, one, who was at the head of 
the file, marched forward with great alacrity^ 
but all the rest stood still. ^'I asked him," 
continued the officer, '' what he was doing. 
'Marching,' said he, 'as you ordered me to do.' 
'It was not you alone that I ordered to march,' 
said I, ' but all.' So I sent him back to his 
place, and then gave the comxmand again. 
Upon this they all advanced promiscuously and 
in disorder toward me, each one acting for him- 
self, without regard to the others, and leaving 
the file-leader, who ought to have been at the 
head, altogether behind. The file-leader said, 
' Keep back I keep back !' Upon this the men 
were offended, and asked what they were to do 
about such contradictory orders. 'One com- 
mands us to advance, and another to keep back !• 
said they; 'how are we to know which to 
obev?'" 



266 Cyrus the Great. 

Merriment of the company. The file-leader and the lettep, 

Cyrus and his guests were so much amused 
at the awkwardness of these recruits, and the 
ridiculous predicament in which the officer was 
placed by it, that the narrative of the speaker 
was here interrupted by universal and long-con- 
tinued laughter. 

''Finally," continued the officer, *' I sent the 
men all back to their places, and explained to 
them that, when a command was given, they 
were not to obey it in confusion and unseemly 
haste, but regularly and in order, each one fol- 
lowing the man who stood before him. 'You 
must regulate your proceeding,' said I, ' by the 
action of the ffie-leader ; when he advances, you 
must advance, following him in a line, and gov- 
erning your movements in all respects by his.' " 

" Just at this moment," continued the offi- 
cer, " a man came to me for a letter which was 
to go to Persia, and which I had left in my 
tent. I directed the file-leader to run to my 
tent and bring the letter to me. He immedi- 
ately set off, and the rest, obeying literally the 
directions which I had just been giving them, 
all followed, running behind him in a line like 
a troop of savages, so that I had the whole squad 
of twenty men running in a body off the field 
to fetch a letter!" 



Conversations. 267 

Remark cf Cyrus. Animadversion < f Aglaitadni*. 

When the general hilarity which these re- 
citals occasioned had a little subsided, Cyrus 
said he thought that they could not complain 
of the character of the soldiers whom they had 
to command; for they were certainly, according 
to these accounts, sufficiently ready to obey the 
orders they received. Upon this, a certain one 
of the guests w^ho was present, named Aglaita- 
das, a gloomy and austere-looking man, who 
had not joined at all in the merriment which 
the conversation had caused, asked Cyrus if he 
believed those stories to be true. 

'' Why ?" asked Cyrus ; " what do pou think 
of them?'' 

^' / think," said Aglaitadas, " that these offi- 
cers invented them to make the company laugh. 
It is evident that they were not telling the truth, 
since they related the stories in such a vain and 
arrogant way." 

^^ Arrogant!" said Cyrus; '^you ought not 
to call them arrogant ; for, even if they invented 
their narrations, it was not to gain any selfish 
ends of their own, but only to amuse us and 
promote our enjoyment. Such persons should 
be called polite and agreeable rather than ar- 
rogant." 

'' If, Aglaitadas," said )ne of the officers who 



8G8 Cyrus the Great. 

Aglaitadas's argument for melancholy. Defense of the officera, 

had related the anecdotes, " we had told you 
melancholy stories to make you gloomy and 
wretched, you might have been justly displeas- 
ed ; but you certainly ought not to complain of 
us for making you merry." 

''Yes," said Aglaitadas, ''I think I may. 
To make a man laugh is a very insignificant 
and useless thing. It is far better to make him 
weep. Such thoughts and such conversation 
as makes us serious, thoughtful, and sad, and 
even moves us to tears, are the most salutary 
and the best." 

''Well," replied the officer, " if you will take 
my advice, you will lay out all your powers of 
inspiring gloom, and melancholy, and of bring- 
ing tears, upon our enemies, and bestow the 
mirth and laughter upon us. There must be a 
prodigious deal of laughter in you, for none ever 
comes out. You neither use nor expend it your- 
self, nor do you afford it to your friends." 

" Then," said Aglaitadas, " why do you at- 
tempt to draw it from me ?" 

" It is preposterous !" said another of the 
company ; "for one could more easily strike firo 
out of Aglaitadas than get a laugh from him !" 

Aglaitadas could not help smiling at this 
comparison; upon which Cyrus, with an air 



Conversations. 239 

General character of Xenophon's Cyropfsdia. 

of counterfeited gravity, reproved the person 
who had spoken, saying that he had corrupted 
the most sober man in the company by making 
him smile, and that to disturb such gravity as 
that of Aglaitadas was carrying the spirit of 
mirth and merriment altogether too far. 

These specimens will suffice. They serve to 
give a more distinct idea of the Cyropsedia of 
Xenophon than any general description could 
afford. The book is a drama, of which the prin- 
cipal elements are such narratives as the story 
of Panthea, and such conversations as those con- 
tained in this chapter, intermingled with long 
discussions on the principles of government, and 
on the discipline and management of armies. 
The principles and the sentiments which the 
work inculcates and explains are now of little 
value, being no longer applicable to the affairs 
of mankind in the altered circumstances of the 
present day. The book, however, retains its 
rank among men on account of a certain beauti- 
ful and simple magnificence characterizing the 
style and language in which it is written, which, 
however, can not be appreciated except by those 
who read the narrative in the original tongue. 
18 



270 Cyrus the Grea.t. [B C 5o0. 

Progreea of Cyrus's conquests. The northern countrioa 



Chapter XII. 
The Death of Cyrus. 

AFTER having made the conquest of tlie 
Babylonian empire, Cyrus found himself 
the sovereign of nearly all of Asia, so far as it 
was then known. Beyond his dominions there 
lay, on every side, according to the opinions 
which then prevailed, vast tracts of uninhabit- 
able territory, desolate and impassable. These 
wildernesses were rendered unfit for man, some- 
times by excessive heat, sometimes by excess- 
ive cold, sometimes from being parched by per- 
petual drought, which produced bare and deso- 
late deserts, and sometimes by incessant rains, 
which drenched the country and filled it with 
morasses and fens. On the north was the great 
Caspian Sea, then almost wholly unexplored, 
and extending, as the ancients believed, to the 
Polar Ocean. 

On the west side of the Caspian Sea were the 
Caucasian Mountains, which were supposed, in 
those days, to be the highest on the globe. In 
the neighborhood of these mountains there was a 



B.C.530.] Death of Cyrus. 271 



The Scythians. Their wailike character. 

country, inhabited by a wild and half-savage 
people, who were called Scythians. This was, 
in fact, a sort of generic term, which was ap- 
plied, in those days, to almost all the aboriginal 
tribes beyond the confines of civilization. The 
Scythians, however, if such they can properly 
be called, who lived on the borders of the Cas- 
pian Sea, were not wholly uncivilized. They 
possessed many of those mechanical arts which 
are the first to be matured among warlike na- 
tions. They had no iron or steel, but they were 
accustomed to work other metals, particularly 
gold and brassy. They tipped their spears and 
javelins with brass, and made brazen plates for 
defensive armor, both for themselves and for 
their horses. They made, also, many orna- 
ments and decorations of gold. These they at- 
tached to their helmets, their belts, and their 
banners. They were very formidable in war, 
being, like all other northern nations, perfectly 
desperate and reckless in battle. They were 
excellent horsemen, and had an abundance of 
horses with which to exercise their skill; so 
that their armies consisted, like those of the 
Cossacks of modern times, of great bodies of 
cavalry. 

The various campaigns and conquests by 



272 Cyrus the Great. [B C. 530. 

Cyrus's sons. His queen. The Massagetao. 

which Cyrus obtained possession of his extend- 
ed dominions occupied an interval of about 
thirty years. It' was near the close of this in- 
terval, when he was, in fact, advancing toward 
a late period of life, that he formed the plan of 
penetrating into these northern regions, with a 
view of adding them also to his domains. 

He had two sons, Cambyses and Smerdis. 
His wife is said to have been a daughter of As- 
tyages, and that he married her soon after his 
conquest of the kingdom of Media, in order to 
reconcile the Medians more easily to his sway, 
by making a Median princess their queen. 
Among the western nations of Europe such a 
marriage would be abhorred, Astyages having 
been Cyrus's grandfather ; but among the Ori- 
entals, in those days, alliances of this nature 
were not uncommon. It would seem that this 
queen was not living at the time that the events 
occurred which are to be related in this chapter 
Her sons had grown up to maturity, and were 
now^ princes of great distinction. 

One of the Scythian or northern nations to 
which we have referred were called the Mas- 
sagetse. They formed a very extensive and 
powerful realm. They were governed, at this 
time, by a queen named Tomyris. She was a 



B.C. 530.] Death OF Cyrus. 273 

fiueen Tomyris. Spargapizes. Selfish views of Cyrua 

widow, past middle life. She had a son nam- 
ed Spargapizes, who had, like the sons of Cy- 
rus, attained maturity, and was the heir to tho 
throne. Spargapizes was, moreover, the com- 
mander-in-chief of the armies of the queen. 

The first plan which Cyrus formed for the 
annexation of the realm of the Massagetse to 
his own dominions was by a matrimonial alli- 
ance. He accordingly raised an army and com- 
menced a movement toward the north, sending, 
at the same time, embassadors before him into 
the country of the Massagetae, with offers of 
marriage to the queen. The queen knew very 
well that it was her dominions, and not herself, 
that constituted the great attraction for Cyrus, 
and, besides, she was of an age when ambition 
is a stronger passion than love. She refused 
the offers, and sent back word to Cyrus forbid- 
ding his approach. 

Cyrus, however, continued to move on. The 
boundary between his dominions and those of 
the queen was at the River Araxes, a stream 
flowing from west to east, through the central 
parts of Asia, toward the Caspian Sea. As 
Cyrus advanced, he found the country growing 
more and more wild and desolate. It was in- 
habited bj savage tribes, who lived on roots and 
S 



274 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 530 

Customs of the savages. Cyrus arrives at the Araxe^ 

herbs, and who were elevated very little, in any 
respect, above the wild beasts that roamed in 
the forests around them. They had one very 
singular custom, according to Herodotus. It 
seems that there was a plant which grew among 
them, that bore a fruit, whose fumes, when it 
was roasting on a fire, had an exhilarating ef- 
fect, like that produced by wine. These sav- 
ages, therefore, Herodotus says, were accustom 
ed to assemble around a fire, in their convivial 
festivities, and to throw some of this fruit in 
the midst of it. The fumes emitted by the 
fruit would soon begin to intoxicate the whole 
circle, when they would throw on more fruit, 
and become more and more excited, until, at 
length, they would jump up, and dance about, 
and sing, in a state of complete inebriation. 

Among such savages as these, and through 
the forests and wildernesses in which they liv- 
ed, Cyrus advanced till he reached the Araxes. 
Here, after considering, for some time, by what 
means he could best pass the river, he determ- 
ined to build a floating bridge, by means of 
boats and rafts obtained from the natives on the 
banks, or built for the purpose. It would be 
obviously much easier to transport the army by 
using these boats and rafts to Jloat the men 



B.C. 530.] Death of Cyrus. 275 

Difficulties of crossing the river. Embassage from Tomyris 

across, instead of constructing a bridge with 
them ; but this would not have been safe, for 
the transportation of the army by such a means 
would be gradual and slow ; and if the enemy 
were lurking in the neighborbood, and should 
make an attack upon them in the midst of the 
operation, while a part of the army were upon 
one bank and a part upon the other, and another 
portion still, perhaps, in boats upon the stream, 
the defeat and destruction of the whole would 
be almost inevitable. Cyrus planned the for- 
mation of the bridge, therefore, as a means of 
transporting his army in a body, and of land- 
ing them on the opposite bank in solid columns, 
which could be formed into order of battle with- 
out any delay. 

While Cyrus was engaged in the work of 
constructing the bridge, embassadors appeared, 
who said that they had been sent from Tomyris. 
She had commissioned them, they said, to warn 
Cyrus to desist entirely from his designs upon 
her kingdom, and to return to his own. This 
would be the wisest course, too, Tomyris said, 
for himself, and she counseled hin.\, for his own 
welfare, to follow it. He could not foresee the 
result, if he should invade her dominions and 
encounter her armies. Fortune had favored 



276 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 530. 

Warning c f Tomj ris. Cyrus calls a council of war. 

him thus far, it was true, but fortune might 
change, and he might find himself, before ho 
was aware, at the end of his victories. Still, 
she said, she had no expectation that he would 
be disposed to listen to this warning and ad- 
vice, and, on her part, she had no objection to 
his persevering in his invasion. She did not 
fear him. He need not put himself to the ex- 
pense and trouble of building a bridge across 
the Araxes. She would agree to withdraw all 
her forces three days' march into her own coun- 
try, so that he might cross the river safely and 
at his leisure, and she would await him at 
the place where she should have encamped ; 
or, if he preferred it, she would cross the river 
and meet him on his own side. In that case, 
he must retire three days' march from the river, 
so as to afford her the same opportunity to make 
the passage undisturbed which she had offered 
him. She would then come over and maich 
on to attack him. She gave Cyrus his option 
which branch of this alternative to choose. 

Cyrus called a council of war to consider the 
question. He laid the case before his officers 
and generals, and asked for their opinion. They 
were unanimously agreed that it would be best 
for him to accede to the last of the two propo^ 



B.C. 530.] Death op Cyrus. 277 

Opinion of the officers. Dissent of Croesua 

eals made to him, viz., to draw back three days' 
journey toward his own dominions, and wait 
for Tomyris to come and attack him there. 

There was, however, one person present at 
this consultation, though not regularly a mem- 
ber of the council, who gave Cyrus different 
advice. This was Croesus, the fallen king of 
Lydia. Ever since the time of his captivity, 
he had been retained in the camp and in the 
household of Cyrus, and had often accompanied 
him in his expeditions and campaigns. Though 
a captive, he seems to have been a friend ; at 
least, the most friendly relations appeared to 
subsist between him and his conqueror ; and 
he often figures in history as a wise and honest 
counselor to Cyrus, in the various emergencies 
in which he was placed. He was present on 
this occasion, and he dissented from the opin- 
ion which was expressed by the officers of the 
army. 

^'I ought to apologize, perhaps," said he, 
"for presuming to offer any counsel, captive aa 
I am ; but I have derived, in the school of ca- 
lamity and misfortune in which I have been 
taught, some advantages for learning wisdom 
which you have never enjoyed. It seems to 
mo that it will be much better for you not to 



278 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 530. 

Speech of Croesus. His advice to Cyrus 

fall back, but to advance and attack Toniyris 
in her own dominions ; for, if yon retire in this 
manner, in the first place, the act itself is dis- 
creditable to you: it is a retreat. Then, if, in 
the battle that follows, Tomyris conquers you, 
»§he is already advanced three days' march into 
your dominions, and she may go on, and, before 
you can take measures for raising another army, 
make herself mistress of your empire. On the 
other hand, if, in the battle, you conquer her, you 
will be then six days' march back of the posi- 
tion which you would occupy if you were to 
advance now. 

^'I will propose," continued Croesus, ''the 
following plan : Cross the river according to 
Tomyris's offer, and advance the three days' 
journey into her country. Leave a small part 
of your force there, with a great abundance of 
your most valuable baggage and supplies — lux- 
uries of all kinds, and rich wines, and such ar- 
ticles as the enemy will most value as plunder. 
Then fall back with the main body of your army 
toward the river again, in a secret manner, and 
encamp in an ambuscade. The enemy will at- 
tack your advanced detachment. They will 
conquer them. They will seize the stores and 
supplies, and will suppose that your whole army 



B.C. 530.] Death of Cyrus. 279 

Cyrus adopts the plan of Croesus. His rep.y to Tomyris. 

is vanquished. They will fall upon the plunder 
in disorder, and the discipline of their army will 
be overthrown. They will go to feasting upon 
the provisions and to drinking the wines, and 
then, when they are in the midst of their fes- 
tivities and revelry, you can come back sud- 
denly with the real strength of your army, and 
wholly overwhelm them." 

Cyrus determined to adopt the plan which 
Croesus thus recommended. He accordingly 
gave answer to the embassadors of Tomyris that 
he would accede to the first of her proposals 
If she would draw back from the river three 
days' march, he would cross it with his army 
as soon as practicable, and then come forward 
and attack her. The embassadors received 
this message, and departed to deliver it to their 
queen. She was faithful to her agreement, and 
drew her forces back to the place proposed, and 
left them there, encamped under the command 
of her son. 

Cyrus seems to have felt some forebodings 
in respect to the manner in which this expedi- 
tion was to end. He was advanced in life, and 
not now as well able as he once was to endure 
the privations and hardships of such campaigns. 
Then, the incursion which he was to make was 



280 Cyrus the Great, [B.C. 5^0. 

Forebodings of Cyrus. He appoints Cairibyses regent 

into a remote, and wild, and dangerous country 
and he could not but be aware that he might 
never return. Perhaps he may have had some 
compunctions of conscience, too, at thus wan- 
tonly disturbing the peace and invading the ter- 
ritories of an innocent neighbor, and his mind 
may have been the less at ease on that account. 
At any rate, he resolved to settle the affairs of 
his government before he set out, in order to se- 
cure both the tranquillity of the country while 
he should be absent, and the regular transmis- 
sion of his power to his descendants in case he 
should never return. 

Accordingly, in a very formal manner, and 
in the presence of all his army, he delegated 
his power to Cambyses, his son, constituting 
him regent of the realm during his absence. 
He committed Croesus to his son's special care, 
charging him to pay him every attention and 
honor. It was arranged that these persons, as 
well as a considerable portion of the army, and 
a large number of attendants that had followed 
the camp thus far, were not to accompany the 
expedition across the river, but were to remain 
behind and return to the capital. These ar- 
rangements being all thus finally made, Cyrus 
took leave of his son and of Croesus, crossed the 



B,C.530.] Death of Cyrus. 2S1 

Hystaspes. His son Darius. Cyrus's dream, 

river with that part of the army which was to 
proceed, and commenced his march. 

The uneasiness and anxiety which Cyrus 
seems to have felt in respect to his future fate 
on this memorable march affected even his 
dreams It seems that there was among the 
ojfficers of his army a certain general named 
Hystaspes. He had a son named Darius, then 
a youth of about twenty years of age, who had 
been left at home, in Persia, when the army 
marched, not being old enough to accompany 
them. Cyrus dreamed, one night, immediately 
after crossing the river, that he saw this young 
Darius with wings on his shoulders, that ex- 
tended, the one over Asia and the other over 
Europe, thus overshadowing the world. When 
Cyrus awoke and reflected upon his dream, it 
seemed to him to portend that Darius might 
be aspiring to the government of his empire 
He considered it a warning intended to put him 
on his guard. 

When he awoke in the morning, he sent for 
Hystaspes, and related to him his dream. ''I 
am satisfied," said he, " that it denotes that 
your son is forming ambitious and treasonable 
designs. Do you, therefore, return home, and 
arrest him in this fatal course. Secure hiiUt 



282 Cyrus the Great. [B.C. 530 

Hy8taspes's commission. Cyrus inarches into tlic queen's country, 

and let him be ready to give me an account of 
his conduct when I shall return." 

Hystaspes, having received this commission, 
left the army and returned. The name of this 
Hystaspes acquired a historical immortality in 
a very singular v^ay, that is, by being always 
used as a part of the appellation by which to 
designate his distinguished son. In after years 
Darius did attain to a very extended power. 
He became Darius the Great. As, however, 
there were several other Persian monarchs called 
Darius, some of whom were nearly as great as 
this the first of the name, the usage was grad- 
ually established of calling him Darius Hystas- 
pes ; and thus the name of the father has be- 
come familiar to all mankind, simply as a con- 
sequence and pendant to the celebrity of the son. 

After sending off Hystaspes, Cyrus went on. 
He followed, in all respects, the plan of Croesus 
He marched his army into the country of To- 
myris, and advanced until he reached the point 
agreed upon. Here he stationed a feeble por« 
tion of his army, v^dth great stores of provisions 
and wines, and abundance of such articles as 
would be prized by the barbarians as booty. 
He then drew back with the main body of his 
army toivard the Araxes, and concealed bis 



B.C. 530 J Death ov Cyrus. 283 

Success of the stratagem. Spargapizes taken prisoner 

forces in a hidden encampment. The result 
was as Croesus had anticipated. The body 
which he had left was attacked by the troops 
of Tomyris, and effectually routed. The pro- 
visions and stores fell into the hands of the vic- 
tors. They gave themxselves up to the most 
unbounded joy, and their whole camp was soon 
a universal scene of rioting and excess. Even 
the commander, Spargapizes, Tomyris's son, 
became intoxicated with the wine. 

While things w^ere in this state, the main 
body of the army of Cyrus returned suddenly 
and unexpectedly, and fell upon their now help- 
less enemies with a force which entirely over- 
whelmed them. The booty was recovered, large 
numbers of the enemy were slain, and others 
were taken prisoners. Spargapizes himself was 
captured ; his hands were bound ; he was tak- 
en into Cyrus's camp, and closely guarded. 

The result of this stratagem, triumphantly 
successful as it was, would have settled the 
contest, and made Cyrus master of the whole 
realm, if, as he, at the time, supposed was tho 
case, the main body of Tomyris's forces haJ 
been engaged in this battle ; but it seems that 
Tomyris had learned, by reconnoiterers and 
spies, how large a force there was in Cyrus's 



284 Cyrus the Great. [RC.oSO. 



Tomyris's concern for her son's safety. Her conciliatory message. 

camp, arid had only sent a detachment of her 
own troops to attack them, not judging it nec- 
essary to call out the whole. Two thirds of her 
army remained still uninjured. With this large 
force she v/ould undoubtedly have advanced 
without any delay to attack Cyrus again, wei^ 
it not for her maternal concern for the safety of 
her son. He was in Cyrus's power, a helpless 
captive, and she did not know to what cruelties 
he would be exposed if Cyrus were to be exas- 
perated against her. While her heart, there- 
fore, was burning with resentment and anger, 
and with an almost uncontrollable thirst for re- 
venge, her hand was restrained. She kept back 
her army, and sent to Cyrus a conciliatory 
message. 

She said to Cyrus that he had no cause to be 
specially elated at his victory ; that it was only- 
one third of her forces that had been engaged, 
and that v/ith the remainder she held him com- 
pletely in her power. She urged him, there- 
fore, to be satisfied with the injury which ho 
had already inflicted upon her by destroying 
one third of her army, and to liberate her son, 
retire from her dominions, and leave her in 
peace. If he would do so, she would not molest 
him in his departure ; but if he would not, she 



B.C.530.J Death of Cyrus. Ji85 

Mortification of Spargapizes. Cyrus gives him liberty within the camp. 

swore by the sun, the great god which she and 
her countrymen adored, that, insatiable as he 
was for blood, she Vv^ould give it to him till he 
had his fill. 

Of course Cyrus was not to be frightened by 
such threats as these. He refused to deliver 
up the captiv*e prince, or to withdraw from the 
country, and both parties began to prepare 
again for war. 

Spargapizes v/as intoxicated when he was 
taken, and was unconscious of the calamity 
which had befallen him. When at length he 
awoke from his stupor, and learned the full ex- 
tent of his misfortune, and of the indelible dis- 
grace which he had incurred, he w^as over- 
whelmed with astonishment, disappointment, 
and shame. The more he reflected upon his 
condition, the more hopeless it seemed. Even 
if his life were to be spared, and if he were to 
recover his liberty, he never could recover his 
honor. The ignominy of such a defeat and such 
a captivity, he knew well, must be indelible. 

He begged Cyrus to loosen his bonds and al- 
low him personal liberty within the camp. Cy- 
rus, pitying perhaps, his misfortunes, and the 
deep dejection and distress which they occasion- 
ed, acceded to this request. Spargapizes watch- 
19 



286 CvRus THE Great. [B.C. 530- 

Death of Spargapizes. Grief and rage of Tomyria 

ed an opportunity to seize a weapon when he 
was not observed by his guards, and killed him- 
self. 

His mother Tomyris, when she heard of his 
fate, was frantic with grief and rage. She con- 
sidered Cyrus as the wanton destroyer of the 
peace of her kingdom and the murderer of her 
son, and she had novv^ no longer any reason for 
restraining her thirst for revenge. She im.me- 
diately began to concentrate her forces, and to 
summon all the additional troops that she could 
obtain from every part of her kingdom. Cyrus, 
too, began in earnest to strengthen his lines, 
and to prepare for the great final struggle. 

At length the armies approached each other, 
and the battle began. The attack was com- 
menced by the archers on either side, who shot 
showers of arrows at their opponents as they 
were advancing. When the arrows were spent, 
the men fought hand to hand, with spears, and 
javelins, and swords. The Persians fought 
desperately, for they fought for their lives. 
They were in the heart of an enemy's country, 
with a broad river behind them to cut off their 
retreat, and they were contending with a wild 
and savage foe, whose natural barbarity was 
rendered still more ferocious and terrible than 



B.C.530.J Death of Cyrus. 287 

The great battle. Cyrus is defeated and slaiix 

ever by the exasperation which they felt, in 
sympathy with their injured queen. For a long 
time it was wholly uncertain which side would 
win the day. The advantage, here and there 
along the lines, was in some places on one side, 
and in some places on the other ; but, though 
overpowered and beaten, the several bands, 
whether of Persians or Scythians, would nei- 
ther retreat nor surrender, but the survivors, 
when their comrades had fallen, continued to 
fight on till they were all slain. It was evident, 
at last, that the Scythians were gaining the 
day. When night came on, the Persian army 
was found to be almost wholly destroyed ; tho 
remnant dispersed. When all was over, the 
Scythians, in exploring the j&eld, found the dead 
body of Cyrus among the other ghastly and 
mutilated remains which covered the ground. 
They took it up with a ferocious and exulting 
joy, and carried it to Tomyris, 

Tomyris treated it with every possible in- 
dignity. She cut and mutilated the lifeless 
form, as if it could still feel the injuries inflist- 
ed by her insane revenge. " jNIiserable wretch !'' 
said she; 'though I am in the end your con- 
queror, you have ruined my peace and hap- 
piness forever. You have murdered my son. 



288 Cyrvs the Great. [B.C. 530. 

Tomyris's treatment of Cyrus's body. Reflection* 

But I promised you your fill of blood, and yon 
shall have it." So saying, she filled a can with 
Persian blood, obtained, probably, by the execn* 
tion of her captives, and, cutting off the head of 
her victim from the body, she plunged it in, ex- 
claiming, ^' Drink there, insatiable monster, till 
your murderous thirst is satisfied." 

This was the end of Cyrus. Cambyses, his 
son, whom he had appointed regent during his 
absence, succeeded quietly to the government 
of his vast dominions. 

In reflecting on this melancholy termination 
of this great conqueror's history, our minds nat- 
urally revert to the scenes of his childhood, and 
we wonder that so amiable, and gentle, and 
generous a boy should become so selfish, and 
unfeeling, and overbearing as a man. But 
such are the natural and inevitable effects of 
ambition and an inordinate love of power. The 
history of a conqueror is always a tragical and 
melancholy tale. He begins life with an ex- 
hibition of great and noble qualities, which 
awaken in us, who read his history, the same 
admiration that was felt for him, personally, by 
his friends and countrymen while he lived, and 
on which the vast ascendency which he acquired 
over the minds of his fellow-men, and which led 



B.C. 530.] Death of Cyrus. 289 

Ilard-heartedness, selfishness, and cruelty characterize the ambitious. 

to his power and fame, was, in a great measure, 
founded. On the other hand, he ends life neg- 
lected, hated, and abhorred. His ambition has 
been gratified, but the gratification has brought 
with it no substantial peace or happiness ; on 
the contrary, it has filled his soul with uneasi- 
ness, discontent, suspiciousness, and misery. 
The histories of heroes would be far less pain- 
ful in the perusal if we could reverse this moral 
change of character, so as to have the cruel- 
ty, the selfishness, and the oppression exhaust 
themselves in the comparatively unimportant 
transactions of early life, and the spirit of kind- 
ness, generosity, and beneficence blessing and 
beautifying its close. To be generous, disin- 
terested, and noble, seems to be necessary as 
the precursor of great military success ; and to 
be hard-hearted, selfish, and cruel is the almost 
Inevitable consequence of it. The exceptions 
to this rule, though some of them are very 
splendid, are yet very few. 



The Ekd. 



HISTORY 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 



BY JACOB ABBOTT. 



S^itl) Hnijrabinsa. 



NEW YORK. 
HARPEli & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

18 80. 



^ 



viii Preface. 

tion of existing accounts is not what they re- 
quire. The story must be told expressly for 
them. The things that are to be explained, 
the points that are to be brought out, the com- 
parative degree of prominence to be given t<s 
the various particulars, will all be different, on 
account of the difference in the situation, the 
ideas, and the objects of these new readers, 
compared with those of the various other classes 
of readers which former authors have had in 
view. It is for this reason, and with this view, 
that the present series of historical narratives is 
presented to the public. The author, having 
had some opportunity to become acquainted 
with the position, the ideas, and the intellect- 
ual wants of those whom he addresses, presents 
the result of his labors to them, v/ith the hope 
that it may be found successful in accomplish- 
ing its design. 



CONTENTS. 



Cht.r*«-r Tag" 

I. HIS CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 13 

II. BEGINNING OF HIS REIGN 36 

III. THE REACTION..™ 57 

IV. CROSSING THE HELLESPONT 78 

V. CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR 103 

VI. DEFEAT OF DARIUS 128 

VII. THE SIEGE OF TYRE 147 

VIII. ALEXANDER IN EGYPT 169 

IX. THE GREAT VICTORY 189 

X. THE DEATH OF DARIUS 213 

XI. DETERIORATION OF CHARACTER 23^ 

XII. Alexander's end 251 



ENGRAVINGS 



MAP, ExrEDiTioi^ OF ALEXANDER FroTitispiece. 

ALEXANDER AND BUCEPHALUS 27 

MAP OF MACEDON AND GREECE 48/ 

MAP OF MACEDON AND GREECE 58)^ 

MAP OF THE PLAIN OF TROY 88;^ 

PARIS AND HELEN 94 

ACHILLES 97/ 

MAP OF THE GRANICUS - 104 i 

THE BATHING IN THE RIVER CYDNUS 124 

MAP OF THE PLAIN OF ISSUS 134,^ 

THE SIEGE OF TYRE „ lt>7 

THE FOCUS „.- 185>c 

THE CALTROP ,..»-, , 1 97 vT 

ALEXANDER AT THE PASS OF SUSA ^.o. 211 

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENT OF MOUNT ATHOS 261 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 

Chapter I. 
His Childhood and Youth. 

I'he briefness of Alexander's career. His brilliant expkiU 

A LEXANDER THE GREAT died when 
■^^ he was quite young. He was but thirty- 
two years of age when he ended his career, and 
as he was about twenty when he commenced 
it, it was only for a period of twelve years that 
he was actually engaged in performing the work 
of his life. Napoleon was nearly three times as 
long on the great field of human action. 

Notwithstanding the briefness of Alexander's 
career, he ran through, during that short peri- 
od, a very brilliant series of exploits, which 
were so bold, so romantic, and which led him 
into such adventures in scenes of the greatest 
magnificence and splendor, that all the world 
looked on with astonishment then, and mankind 
have continued to read the story since, from 
age to age, with the greatest interest and at. 
tention. 



14 /Vlexanuer the Great. [B.C. 356. 

CliL»racter of Alexander. Mental and physical qualities. 

The secret of Alexander's success was his 
character. He possessed a certain combination 
of mental and personal attractions, which in ev- 
ery age gives to those who exhibit it a mysteri- 
ous and almost unbounded ascendency over all 
within their influence. Alexander was charac- 
terized by these qualities in a very remarkable 
degree. He was finely formed in person, and 
very prepossessing in his manners. He was 
active, athletic, and full of ardor and enthusi- 
asm in all that he did. At the same time, he 
was calm, collected, and considerate in emer- 
gencies requiring caution, and thoughtful and 
far-seeing in respect to the bearings and conse- 
quences of his acts. He formed strong attach- 
ments, was grateful for kindnesses shown to 
him, considerate in respect to the feelings of all 
who were connected with him in any way, faith- 
ful to his friends, and generous toward his foes. 
In a word, he had a noble character, though he 
devoted its energies unfortunately to conquest 
and war. He lived, in fact, in an age when 
great personal and mental powers had scarcely 
any other field for their exercise than this. He 
entered upon his career with great ardor, and 
the position in which he was placed gave him the 
opportunity to act in it witli prodigious eff'ect. 



B.C. 356.] Childhood and Youth. 15 

Character of the Asiatic and European civlUzation. 

There were several circumstances combined, 
in the situation in which Alexander was placed, 
to afford him a great opportunity for the exer- 
cise of his vast powers. His native country 
was on the confines of Europe and Asia. Now 
Europe and Asia were, in those days, as now, 
marked and distinguished by two vast masses 
of social and civilized life, widely dissimilar from 
each other. The Asiatic side was occupied by 
the Persians, the Modes, and the Assyrians. 
The European side by the Greeks and Romans. 
They were separated from each other by the 
waters of the Hellespont, the jEgean Sea, and 
the Mediterranean, as will be seen by the map. 
These waters constituted a sort of natural bar- 
rier, which kept the two races apart. The 
races formed, accordingly, two vast organiza- 
tions, distinct and widely different from each 
other, and of course rivals and enemies. 

It is hard to say whether the Asiatic or Eu- 
ropean civilization was the highest. The two 
were so different that it is difficult to compare 
them. On the Asiatic side there was wealth, 
luxury, and splendor ; on the European, ener- 
gy, genius, and force. On the one hand were 
vast cities, splendid palaces, and gardens which 
were tlie wonder of the world; on the other, 
20 



16 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 356, 

Composition of Asiatic and European armies. 

fjtrong citadels, military roads and bridges, and 
compact and well-defended towns. The Per- 
sians had enormous armies, perfectly provided 
for, with beautiful tents, horses elegantly ca 
parisoned, arms and munitions of war of the 
finest workmanship, and officers magnificently 
dressed, and accustomed to a life of luxury and 
splendor. The Greeks and Romans, on the 
other hand, prided themselves on their compact 
bodies of troops, inured to hardship and thor- 
oughly disciplined. Their officers gloried not 
in luxury and parade, but in the courage, the 
steadiness, and implicit obedience of their troops, 
and in their own science, skill, and powers of 
military calculation. Thus there was a great 
difference in the whole system of social and mil- 
itary organization in these two quarters of the 
globe. 

Now Alexander was born the heir to the 
throne of one of the Grecian kingdoms. He 
possessed, in a very remarkable degree, the ener- 
gy, and enterprise, and military skill so charac- 
teristic of the Greeks and Romans. He organ- 
ized arnnies, crossed the boundary between Eu- 
rope and Asia, and spent the twelve years of 
his career in a most triumphant military incur- 
sion into the very center and seat of Asiatic 



B.C. 356.] Childhood and Youth. 17 

Bang Philip. Extent of Macedon. Olympifls 

power, destroying the Asiatic armies, conquer- 
ing the most splendid cities, defeating or taking 
captive the kings, and princes, and generals 
that opposed his progress. The whole world 
looked on with wonder to see such a course of 
conquest, pursued so successfully by so young 
a man, and with so small an army, gaining 
continual victories, as it did, over such vast 
numbers of foes, and making conquests of such 
accumulated treasures of wealth and splendor. 
The name of Alexander's father was Philip. 
The kingdom over which he reigned was called 
Macedon. Macedon was in the northern part 
of Greece. It was a kingdom about twice as 
large as the State of Massachusetts, and one 
third as large as the State of New York. The 
name of Alexander's mother was Olympias. 
She was the daughter of the King of Epirus, 
which was a kingdom somewhat smaller than 
Macedon, and lying westward of it. Both 
Macedon and Epirus will be found upon the 
map at the commencement of this volume. 
Olympias was a woman of very strong and de- 
termined character. Alexander seemed to in- 
herit her energy, though in his case it was com- 
bined with other qualities of a more attractive 
character, which his mother did not possess. 
B 



18 Alexander the Great, [B.C. 356, 

The young prince Alexander. Ancient mode of warfare 

He was, of course, as the young prince, a very 
important personage in his father^s court. Ev- 
ery one knew that at his father's death he would 
become King of Macedon, and he was conse- 
quently the object of a great deal of care and 
attention. As he gradually advanced in the 
years of his boyhood, it was observed by all who 
knew him that he was endued with extraor- 
dinary qualities of mind and of character, which 
seemed to indicate, at a very early age, his fu- 
ture greatness. 

Although he was a prince, he was not brought 
up in habits of luxury and effeminacy. This 
would have been contrary to all the ideas which 
were entertained by the Greeks in those days. 
They had then no fire-arms, so that in battle 
the combatants could not stand quietly, as they 
can now, at a distance from the enemy, coolly 
discharging musketry or cannon. In ancient 
battles the soldiers rushed toward each other, 
and fought hand to hand, m close combat, with 
swords, or spears, or other weapons requiring 
great personal strength, so that headlong brav- 
ery and muscular force were the qualities which 
generally carried the day. 

The duties of officers, too, on the field of bat- 
tle, were very different then from what they are 



B.C.356.] Childhood and Youth. 19 

Ancient and modem military officers. Alexander's nursw, 

now. An officer now must be calm, collected, 
and quiet. His business is to plan, to calculate, 
feo direct, and arrange. He has to do this some- 
times, it is true, in circumstances of the most 
imminent danger, so that he must be a man 
of great self-possession and of undaunted cour- 
age. But there is very little occasion for him 
to exert any great physical force. 

In ancient times, however, the great busi- 
ness of the officers, certainly in all the subordi- 
nate grades, was to lead on the men, and set 
them an example by performing themselves 
deeds in which their own great personal prow- 
ess was displayed. Of course it was consider- 
ed extremely important that the child destined 
to be a general should become robust and pow- 
erful in constitution from his earliest years, and 
that he should be inured to hardship and fa- 
tigue. In the early part of Alexander's life this 
was the main object of attention. 

The name of the nurse who had charge of 
uur hero in his infancy was Lannice. She did 
all in her power to give strength and hardihood 
to his constitution, while, at the same time, she 
treated him with kindness and gentleness 
Alexander acquired a strong affection for her, 
and he treated her with great consideration a« 



20 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 350. 

Alexander's education. Lysimachus. Homer 

long as he lived. He had a governor, also, ui 
his early years, named Leonnatus, who had the 
general charge of his education. As soon as he 
was old enough to learn, they appointed him a 
preceptor also, to teach him such branches as 
were generally taught to young princes in those 
days. The name of this preceptor was Lysim- 
achus. 

They had then no printed books, but there 
were a few writings on parchment rolls which 
young scholars were taught to read. Some of 
these writings were treatises on philosophy, oth- 
ers were romantic histories, narrating the ex- 
ploits of the heroes of those days^-of course, with 
much exaggeration and embellishment. There 
were also some poems, still more romantic than 
the histories, though generally on the same 
themes. The greatest productions of this kind 
were the writings of Homer, an ancient poet 
who lived and wrote four or five hundred years 
before Alexander's day. The young Alexander 
was greatly delighted with Homer's tales. These 
tales are narrations of the exploits and adven- 
tures of certain great warriors at the siege of 
Troy — a siege which lasted ten years — and they 
are written with so much beauty and force, they 
contain such admirable delineations of charao 



B.C. 350.] Childhood and Youth. 21 

Aristotle. Alexander's copy of Homer, 

ter, and such graphic and vivid descriptions of 
romantic adventures, and picturesque and strik- 
ing scenes, that they have been admired in every 
age by all v^ho have learned to understand the 
language in which they are v^ritten. 

Alexander could understand them very easily, 
as they v^ere written in his mother tongue. Ho 
was greatly excited by the narrations them- 
selves, and pleased with the flowing smoothness 
of the verse in which the tales were told. In 
the latter part of his course of education he was 
placed under the charge of Aristotle, who was 
one of the most eminent philosophers of ancient 
times. Aristotle had a beautiful copy of Ho 
mer's poems prepared expressly for Alexander, 
taking great pains to have it transcribed with 
perfect correctness, and in the most elegant 
manner. Alexander carried this copy with him 
in all his campaigns. Some years afterward, 
when he was obtaining conquests over the Per- 
sians, he took, among the spoils of one of his vic- 
tories, a very beautiful and costly casket, which 
King Darius had used for his jewelry or for some 
other rich treasures. Alexander determined to 
make use of this box as a depository for his beau- 
tiful copy of Homer, and he always carried it 
with him, thus protected, in all his subsequent 
campaigns. 



22 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 350. 

Alexander's energy and ambition. The Persian embassadors 

Alexander was full of energy and spirit, but he 
was, at the same time, like all who ever become 
truly great, of a reflective and considerate turn 
of mind. He was very fond of the studies which 
Aristotle led him to pursue, although they were 
of a very abstruse and difficult character. He 
made great progress in metaphysical philosophy 
and mathematics, by which means his powers 
of calculation and his judgment were greatly 
improved. 

He early evinced a great degree of ambition. 
His father Philip was a powerful warrior, and 
made many conquests in various parts of Greece, 
though he did not cross into Asia. When news 
of Philip's victories came into Macedon, all the 
rest of the court would be filled with rejoicing 
and delight ; but Alexander, on such occasions, 
looked thoughtful and disappointed, and com- 
plained that his father would conquer every 
country, and leave him nothing to do. 

At one time some embassadors from the Per- 
sian court arrived in Macedon when Philip was 
away. These embassadors saw Alexander, of 
course, and had opportunities to converse with 
him. They expected that he would be interest- 
ed in hearing about the splendors, and pomp, 
and parade of the Persian monarchy. They 



B.C. 340.] Childhood and Youth. 23 

Stories of the embassadors. Maturity of Alexander's mind 

had stories to tell him about the famous hang- 
ing gardens, which were artificially constructed 
in the most magnificent manner, on arches rais- 
ed high in the air ; and about a vine made of 
gold, with all sorts of precious stones upon it in- 
stead of fruit, which was wrought as an orna- 
ment over the throne on which the King of Per- 
sia often gave audience ; of the splendid palaces 
and vast cities of the Persians ; and the ban- 
quets, and fetes, and magnificent entertain- 
ments and celebrations which they used to have 
ehere. They found, however, to their surprise, 
that Alexander was not interested in hearing 
about any of these things. He would always 
turn the conversation from them to inquire 
about the geographical position of the different 
Persian countries, the various routes leading 
into the interior, the organization of the Asiat- 
ic armies, their system of military tactics, and. 
especially, the character and habits of Artax- 
erxes, the Persian king. 

The embassadors were very much surprised 
at such evidences of maturity of mind, and of 
far-seeing and reflective powers on the part of 
the young prince. They could not help com- 
paring him with Artaxerxes. ''' Alexander," 
said they, '' is great, while our king is only 



24 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 340 

Secret of Alexander's success. The story of Bucephalua 

recA." The truth of the judgment which these 
embassadors thus formed in respect to the qual- 
ities of the young Macedonian, compared with 
those held in highest estimation on the Asiatic 
side, was fully conjfirmed in the subsequent 
stages of Alexander's career. 

In fact, this combination of a calm and cal- 
culating thoughtfulness, with the ardor and en- 
ergy which formed the basis of his character, 
was one great secret of Alexander's success. 
The story of Bucephalus, his famous horse, il- 
lustrates this in a very striking manner. This 
animal was a war-horse of very spirited charac- 
ter, which had been sent as a present to Philip 
while Alexander was young. They took the 
horse out into one of the parks connected with 
the palace, and the king, together with many 
of his courtiers, went out to view him. The 
horse pranced about in a very furious manner, 
and seemed entirely unmanageable. No one 
dared to mount him. Philip, instead of being 
gratified at the present, was rather disposed to 
be displeased that they had sent him an animal 
of so fiery and apparently vicious a nature that 
nobody dared to attempt to subdue him. 

In the mean time, while all the other by- 
standers were joining in the general condemna- 



B.C. 340.] Childhood and Youth. 25 

Philip condemns the horse. Alexander desires to mc unt him 

tion of the horse, Alexander stood quietly by, 
watching his motions, and attentively studying 
his character. He perceived that a part of the 
difficulty was caused by the agitations which 
the horse experienced in so strange and new a 
scene, and that he appeared, also, to be some- 
what frightened by his own shadow, which hap- 
pened at that time to be thrown very strongly 
and distinctly upon the ground. He saw other 
indications, also, that the high excitement which 
the horse felt was not viciousness, but the ex- 
cess of noble and generous impulses. It was 
courage, ardor, and the consciousness of great 
nervous and muscular power. 

Philip had decided that the horse was useless, 
and had given orders to have him sent back to 
Thessaly, whence he came. Alexander was 
very much concerned at the prospect of losing 
so fine an animal. He begged his father to al- 
low him to make the experiment of mounting 
him. Philip at first refused, thinking it very 
presumptuous for such a youth to attempt to 
subdue an animal so vicious that all his experi- 
enced horsemen and grooms condemned him ; 
however, he at length consented. Alexander 
went up to the horse and took hold of his bridle. 
He patted him upon the neck, and soothed him 



26 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 34U 

Bucephalus calmed. An exciting ride 

with his voice, showing, at the same time, by 
his easy and unconcerned manner, that he was 
not in the least afraid of him. A spirited horse 
knows immediately when any one approaches 
him in a timid or cautious manner. He appears 
to look with contempt on such a master, and to 
determine not to submit to him. On the con- 
trary, horses seem to love to yield obedience to 
man, when the individual who exacts the obe- 
dience possesses those qualities of coolness and 
courage which their instincts enable them to ap- 
preciate. 

At any rate, Bucephalus was calmed and sub- 
dued by the presence of Alexander. He allow- 
ed himself to be caressed. Alexander turned 
his head in such a direction as to prevent his 
seeing his shadow. He quietly and gently laid 
off a sort of cloak which he wore, and sprang 
upon the horse's back. Then, instead of attempt- 
ing to restrain him, and worrying and checking 
him by useless efforts to hold him in, he gave 
him the rein freely, and animated and encour- 
aged him with his voice, so that the horse flew 
across the plains at the top of his speed, the king 
and the courtiers looking on, at first with fear 
and trembling, but soon afterward with feelings 
of the greatest admiration and pleasure. After 



B.C. 340.] Childhood and Youth. 29 

Sagacity of Bucephalus. Becomes Alexander's favorite 

the horse had satisfied himself with his run it 
was easy to rein him in, and Alexander return- 
ed with him in safety to the king. The courtiers 
overwhelmed him with their praises and congrat- 
ulations. Philip commended him very highly : 
he told him that he deserved a larger kingdom 
than Macedon to govern. 

Alexander's judgment of the true character 
of the horse proved to be correct. He became 
very tractable and docile, yielding a ready sub- 
mission to his master in every thing. He would 
kneel upon his fore legs at Alexander's com- 
mand, in order that he might mount more eas- 
ily. Alexander retained him for a long time, 
and made him his favorite war horse. A great 
many stories are related by the historians of 
those days of his sagacity and his feats of war. 
Whenever he was equipped for the field with 
his military trappings, he seemed to be highly 
elated with pride and pleasure, and at such 
times he would not allow any one but Alex- 
ander to mount him. 

What became of him at last is not certainly 
known. There are two accounts of his end. 
One is, that on a certain occasion Alexander 
got carried too far into the midst of his enemies, 
on a battle field, and that, after fighting desper 



30 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 338 

Fate of Bucephalus. Alexander made regent 

ately for some time, Bucephalus made the most 
extreme exertions to carry him away. He was 
severely wounded again and again, and though 
his strength was nearly gone, he would not stop, 
but pressed forward till he had carried his mas- 
ter away to a place of safety, and that then he 
dropped down exhausted, and died. It may be, 
however, that he did not actually die at this 
time, but slowly recovered ; for some historians 
relate that he lived to be thirty years old — 
which is quite an old age for a horse — and that 
he then died. Alexander caused him to be 
buried with great ceremony, and built a small 
city upon the spot in honor of his memory. The 
name of this city was Bucephalia. 

Alexander's character matured rapidly, and 
he began very early to act the part of a man. 
When he was only sixteen years of age, his fa- 
ther, Philip, made him regent of Macedon 
while he was absent on a great military cam- 
paign among the other states of Greece. With- 
out doubt Alexander had, in this regency, the 
counsel and aid of high officers of state of great 
experience and ability. He acted, however, 
himself, in this high position, with great energy 
and with complete success ; and, at the same 
time, with all that modesty of deportment, and 



B.C. 338.J Childhood and Youth. 31 

Alexander's first battle. Chaeroaeai 

that delicate consideration for the officers under 
him — who, though inferior in rank, were yet his 
superiors in age and experience— which his po- 
sition rendered proper, but which few persons 
so young as he would have manifested in cir- 
cumstances so well calculated to awaken the 
feelings of vanity and elation. 

Afterward, when Alexander was about eigh- 
teen years old, his father took him with him on 
a campaign toward the south, during which 
Philip fought one of his great battles at Chser- 
onea, in Boeotia. In the arrangements for this 
battle, Philip gave the command of one of the 
wings of the army to Alexander, v/hile he re- 
served the other for himself. He felt some so- 
licitude in giving his young son so important a 
charge, but he endeavored to guard against the 
danger of an unfortunate result by putting the 
ablest generals on Alexander's side, while he re- 
served those on whom he could place less reli- 
ance for his own. Thus organized, the army 
went into battle. 

Philip soon ceased to feel any solicitude for 

Alexander's part of the duty. Boy as he was, 

the young prince acted with the utmoet bravery, 

coolness, and discretion. The wing which he 

commanded was victorious, and Philip was oblige 
21 



32 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 338 

Alexanders impetuosity. Philip repudiates Olympias. 

ed to urge himself and the officers with him to 
greater exertions, to avoid being outdone by his 
son. In the end Phihp was completely victori- 
ous, and the result of this great battle was to 
make his power paramount and supreme over 
all the states of Greece. 

Notwithstanding, however, the extraordina- 
ry discretion and wisdom which characterized 
the mind of Alexander in his early years, he 
was often haughty and headstrong, and in 
cases where his pride or his resentment were 
aroused, he was sometimes found very impetu- 
ous and uncontrollable. His mother Olympias 
was of a haughty and imperious temper, and 
she quarreled with her husband, King Philip ; 
or, perhaps, it ought rather to be said that he 
quarreled with her. Each is said to have been 
unfaithful to the other, and, after a bitter con- 
tention, Philip repudiated his wife and married 
another lady. Among the festivities held on 
the occasion of this marriage, there was a great 
banquet, at which Alexander was present, and 
an incident occurred which strikingly illustrates 
the impetuosity of his character. 

One of the guests at this banquet, in saying 
something complimentary to the new queen, 
made use of expressions which Alexander con 



B.C. 338,] Childhood and Youth. 38 

Alexander's violent temper. Philip's attempt on Lis sou. 

Ridered as in disparagement of the character of 
his mother and of his own birth. His anger was 
immediately aroused. He threw the cup from 
which he had been drinking at the offenders' 
head. Attains, for this was his name, threw 
his cup at Alexander in return ; the guests at 
the table where they were sitting rose, and a 
scene of uproar and confusion ensued. 

Philip, incensed at such an interruption of 
the order and harmony of the wedding feast, 
drew his sword and rushed toward Alexander, 
but by some accident he stumbled and fell upon 
the floor. Alexander looked upon his fallen 
father with contempt and scorn, and exclaimed, 
^' What a fine hero the states of Greece have 
to lead their armies — a man that can not get 
across the floor without tumbling down." He 
then turned away and left the palace. Imme- 
diately afterward he joined his mother Olympi- 
as, and v/ent away with her to her native coun- 
try, Epirus, v/here the mother anvi son remain- 
ed for a time in a state of open quarrel with 
the husband and father. 

In the mean time Philip had been planning 
a great expedition into Asia. He had arranged 
the affairs of his own kingdom, and had formed 
a strong combination among the states of Greece 



34 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 336. 



Philips power. His plans of conquest 



by which powerful armies had been raised, and 
he had been designated to command them. His 
mind was very intently engaged in this vast 
enterprise. He was in the flower of his years, 
and at the height of his power. His own king- 
dom was in a very prosperous and thriving con« 
ditioHj and his ascendency over the other king- 
doms and stat3S on the European side had been 
fully established. He was excited with ambi- 
tion, and full of hope. He was proud of his 
son Alexander, and was relying upon his effi- 
cient aid in his schemes of conquest and ag- 
grandizement. He had married a youthful and 
beautiful bride, and was surrounded by scenes 
of festivity, congratulation, and rejoicing. He 
was looking forward to a very brilliant career, 
considering all the deeds that he had done and 
all the glory which he had acquired as only the 
introduction and prelude to the far more distin- 
guished and conspicuous part which he was in- 
tending to perform. 

Alexander, in the mean time, ardent and im- 
petuous, and eager for glory as he was, looked 
upon the position and prospects of his father 
with some envy and jealousy. He was impa- 
tient to be monarch himself. His taking sides 
so promptly with )iis mother in the domestic 



B,C.336.] Childhood and Youth. 35 



Alexander's impatience to reign. 



quarrel was partly owing to the feeling that his 
father was a hinderance and an obstacle in the 
way of his own greatness and fame. He felt 
within himself powers and capacities qualifying 
him to take his father's place, and reap for him- 
self the harvest of glory and power which seem- 
ed to await the Grecian armies in the coming 
campaign. While his father lived, however, he 
could be only a prince ; influential, accomplish- 
ed, and popular, it is true, but still without any 
substantial and independent power. He was 
restless and uneasy at the thought that, as his 
father was in the prime and vigor of manhood, 
many long years must elapse before he could 
emerge from this confined and subordinate con- 
dition. His restlessness and uneasiness were, 
hov/ever, suddenly ended by a very extraordi- 
nary occurrence, which called him, with scarce- 
ly an hour's notice, to take his father's plac-e 
upon the throne. 



86 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 336 

Philip is reconciled to Olympias and Alexander. 



Chapter IL 
Beginning of his Reign. 

ALEXANDER was snddenly called upon 
to succeed his father on the Macedonian 
throne, in the most unexpected manner, and in 
the midst of scenes of the greatest excitement 
and agitation. The circumstances were these : 

Philip had felt very desirous, before setting 
out upon his great expedition into Asia, to be- 
come reconciled to Alexander and Olympias. 
He wished for Alexander's co-operation in his 
plans ; and then, besides, it would be dangerous 
to go away from his own dominions with such 
a son left behind, in a state of resentment and 
hostility. 

So Philip sent kind and conciliatory messages 
to Olympias and Alexander, who had gone, it 
will be recollected, to Epirus, where her friends 
resided. The brother of Olympias was King of 
Epirus. He had been at first incensed at the 
indignity which had been put upon his sister 
by Philip's treatment of her; but Philip now 
tried to appease his anger, also, by friendly ne- 



B.C. 336.] Beginning of his Reign. ti7 

Olympias and Alexander returned. The great wedaing 

gotiations and messages. At last he arranged 
a marriage between this King of Epirus and 
one of his own daughters, and this completed 
the reconciliation. Olympias and Alexander 
returned to Macedon, and great preparations 
were made for a very splendid wedding. 

Philip wished to make this wedding not 
merely the means of confirming his reconcilia- 
tion with his former wife and son, and establish- 
ing friendly relations with the King of Epirus: 
he also prized it as an occasion for paying mark- 
ed and honorable attention to the princes and 
great generals of the other states of Greece. He 
consequently made his preparations on a very 
extended and sumptuous scale, and sent invita- 
tions to the influential and prominent men far 
and near. 

These great men, on the other hand, and all 
the other public authorities in the various Gre- 
cian states, sent comphments, congratulations, 
and presents to Philip, each seeming ambitioug 
to contribute his share to the splendor of the 
celebration. They were not wholly disinterest«» 
ed in this, it is true. As Philip had been mada 
commander-in-chief of the Grecian armies which 
were about to undertake the conquest of Asia, 
and as, of course, his influence and power in 



38 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 336 

Preparations for the wedding. Costly presents. 

all that related to that vast enterprise would be 
paramount and supreme ; and as all were am- 
bitious to have a large share in the glory of that 
expedition, and to participate, as much as pos- 
sible, in the pov/er and in the renown which 
seemed to be at Philip's disposal, all were, of 
course, very anxious to secure his favor. A 
short time before, they were contending against 
him ; but now, since he had established his as- 
cendency, they all eagerly joined in the Vv^ork 
of magnifying it and making it illustrious. 

Nor could Philip justly complain of the hol- 
lowness and falseness of these professions of 
friendship. The compliments and favors which 
he offered to them were equally hollow and 
heartless. He wished to secure their favor as 
a means of aiding him up the steep path to 
fame and power which he was attempting to 
climb. They wished for his, in order that he 
might, as he ascended himself, help them up 
with him. There was, however, the greatest 
appearance of cordial and devoted friendship 
Some cities sent him presents of golden crowns, 
beautifully wrought, and of high cost. Others 
dispatched embassies, expressing their good 
wishes for him, and their confidence m the suc- 
ness of his plans. Athens, the city which was 



B.C 336.] Beginning of his Reign. 39 

Celebration of the wedding. Games and spectacles 

the great seat of literature and science in Greece^ 
sent a poern^ in which the history of the expedi- 
tion into Persia was given by anticipation. In 
this poem Philip was, of course, triumphantly 
successful in his enterprise. He conducted his 
armies in safety through the most dangerous 
passes and defiles ; he fought glorious battles, 
gained magnificent victories, and possessed him- 
self of all the treasures of Asiatic wealth and 
power. It ought to be stated, however, in jus- 
tice to the poet, that, in narrating these imagi- 
nary exploits, he had sufficient delicacy to rep- 
resent Philip and the Persian monarch by ficti- 
tious names. 

The wedding was at length celebrated, in ono 
of the cities of Macedon, with great pomp and 
splendor. There were games, and shows, and 
military and civic spectacles of all kinds to 
amuse the thousands of spectators that assem- 
bled to witness them. In one of these specta- 
cles they had a procession of statues of the gods. 
There were twelve of these statues, sculptured 
with great art, and they were borne along on 
elevated pedestals, with censers, and incense, 
and various ceremonies of homage, while vast 
multitudes of spectators lined the way. There 
was a thirteenth statue, more magnificent than 



40 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 336. 

Statues of the gods. Military procession, 

the other twelve, which represented Philip him* 
self in the character of a god. 

This was not, however, so impious as it would 
at first view seem, for the gods whom the an- 
cients worshiped were, in fact, only deificatiom 
of old heroes and kings who had lived in earl> 
times, and had acquired a reputation for super 
natural powers by the fame of their exploits, ex- 
aggerated in descending by tradition in super- 
stitious times. The ignorant multitude accord- 
ingly, in those days, looked up to a living king 
with almost the same reverence and homage 
which they felt for their deified heroes ; and 
these deified heroes furnished them with all the 
ideas they had of God. Making a monarch a 
god, therefore, was no very extravagant flattery. 

After the procession of the statues passed 
along, there came bodies of troops, with trum- 
pets sounding and banners flying. The officers 
rode on horses elegantly caparisoned, and pranc- 
ing proudly. These troops escorted princes, 
embassadors, generals^ and great officers of 
state, all gorgeously decked in their robes, and 
wearing their badges and insignia. 

At length King Philip himself appeared in 
the procession. He had arranged to have a 
large space left, in the middle of which he was 



B.C. 336.] Beginning of his Reign. 41 

Appearance of Philip. The scene changed 

to walk. This was done in order to make his 
position the more conspicuouSj and to mark 
more strongly his own high distinction above 
all the other potentates present on the occasion. 
Guards preceded and followed him, though at 
considerable distance, as has been already said, 
lie was himself clothed with white robes, and 
his head was adorned with a splendid crown. 

The procession was moving toward a great 
theater, where certain games and spectacles 
were to be exhibited. The statues of the gods 
were to be taken into the theater, and placed 
in conspicuous positions there, in the view of 
the assembly, and then the procession itself 
was to follow. All the statues had entered ex- 
cept that of Philip, which v/as just at the door, 
and Philip himself was advancing in the midst 
of the space left for him, up the avenue by 
which the theater was approached, when an oc- 
currence took place by which the whole char 
acter of the scene, the destiny of Alexander, 
and the fate of fifty nations, was suddenly and 
totally changed. It was this. An officer of 
the guards, who had his position in the proces- 
sion near the king, was seen advancing impetu- 
ously toward him, through the space which sep- 
arated him from the rest, and, before the snecta* 



42 AlexaiVder the Great. [B.C. 336 

Assassination of PMlip. Alexander proclaimed king 

tors had time even to wonder what ho was go- 
ing to do, he stabbed him to the heart. PhiUp 
fell down in the street and died. 

A scene of indescribable tumult and confu- 
sion ensued. The murderer was immediately 
cut to pieces by the other guards. They found, 
however, before he was dead, that it was Pau- 
sanias, a man of high standing and influence, a 
general officer of the guards. He had had horses 
provided, and other assistance ready, to enable 
him to make his escape, but he was cut down 
by the guards before he could avail himself of 
them. 

An officer of state immediately hastened to 
Alexander, and announced to him his father's 
death and his own accession to the throne. An 
assembly of the leading counselors and states- 
men was called, in a hasty and tumultuous 
manner, and Alexander was proclaimed king 
with prolonged and general acclamations. Al- 
exander made a speech in reply. The great as- 
sembly looked upon his youthful form and face 
as he arose, and listened with intense interest 
to hear what he had to say. He was between 
nineteen and twenty years of age ; but, though 
thus really a boy, he spoke with all the decision 
and confidence of an energetic man. He said 



B.C.338.] Beginning of his Reign. 43 

Alexander's speech. Demosthenes' Philippics 

that he should at once assume his father's posi- 
tion, and carry forAvard his plans. He hoped to 
do this so efficiently that every thing would go 
directly onward, just as if his father had con- 
tinued to live, and that the nation would jfind 
that the only change which had taken place was 
in the name of the king. 

The motive which induced Pausanias to mur- 
der Philip in this manner was never fully as- 
certained. There were various opinions about 
it. One w^as, that it was an act of private re- 
venge, occasioned by some neglect or injury 
which Pausanias had received from Philip. 
Others thought that the murder was instigated 
by a party in the states of Greece, who were 
hostile to Philip, and unwilling that he should 
command the allied armies that were about to 
penetrate into Asia. Demxosthenes, the cele- 
brated orator, was Philip's great enemy among 
the Greeks. INIany of his most powerful ora- 
tions were made for the purpose of arousing his 
countrymen to resist his ambitious plans and 
%o curtail his power. These orations were call- 
ed his Philippics, and from this origin has aris- 
en the practice, which has prevailed ever since 
that day, of applying the term philippics to de* 
note, in general, any strongly denunciatory ha« 
rangues. 



44 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 336 

The Greeks suspected of the murder. The Persians also 

Now Demosthenes, it is said, who was at this 
time in Athens, announced the death of Philip 
in an Athenian assembly before it was possible 
that the news could have been conveyed there. 
He accounted for his early possession of the in- 
telligence by saying it was communicated to 
him by some of the gods. Many persons have 
accordingly supposed that the plan of assassin- 
ating Philip was devised in Greece ; that De- 
mosthenes was a party to it; that Pausanias 
was the agent for carrying it into execution ; 
and that Demosthenes was so confident of the 
success of the plot, and exulted so much in this 
certainty, that he could not resist the tempta- 
tion of thus anticipating its announcement. 

There were other persons who thought that 
the Persians had plotted and accomplished this 
murder, having induced Pausanias to execute 
the deed by the promise of great rewards* As 
Pausanias himself, however, had been instantly 
killed, there was no opportunity of gaining any 
information from him on the motives of his con* 
duct, even if he would have been disposed to im- 
part any. 

At all events, Alexander found himself sud- 
denly elevated to one of the most conspicuous 
positions in th<3 whole political world. It was 



B.C. 336.] Beginning of his Reign. 4^ 

Alexander's new position. His designs. 

not simply that he succeeded to the throne of 
Macedon ; even this would have been a lofty po- 
sition for so young a man ; but Macedon was 
a very small part of the realm over which Philip 
had extended his power. The ascendency which 
he had acquired over the whole Grecian empire, 
and the vast arrangements he had made for an 
mcursion into Asia, made Alexander the object 
of universal interest and attention. The ques 
tion vfas, whether Alexander should attempt to 
take his father's place in respect to all this gen- 
eral power, and undertake to sustain and carry 
on his vast projects, or whether he should con- 
tent himself with ruling, in quiet, over his na- 
tive country of Macedon. 

Most prudent persons would have advised a 
young prince, under such circumstances, to 
have decided upon the latter course. But Alex- 
ander had no idea of bounding his ambition by 
any such limits. He resolved to spring at once 
completely into his father's seat, and not only to 
possess him.self of the whole of the power which 
his father had acquired, but to commence, im* 
mediately, the most energetic and vigorous ef- 
forts for a great extension of it. 

His first plan was to punish his father's mur« 
derers. He caused the circumstances of tlie 



46 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 336 

. — , -r— • 

Murderers of Philip punished. Alexander's first acts. 

case to be investigated, and the persons suspect- 
ed of having been connected with Pausanias in 
the plot to be tried. Although the designs and 
motives of the murderers could never be fully 
ascertained, still several persons were found 
guilty of participating in it, and were condemn- 
ed to death and publicly executed. 

Alexander next decided not to make any 
change in his father's appointments to the great 
offices of state, but to let all the departments of 
public affairs go on in the same hands as be- 
fore. How sagacious a line of conduct was 
this ! Most ardent and enthusiastic young 
men, in the circumstances in which he was 
placed, would have been elated and vain at their 
elevation, and would have replaced the old and 
well-tried servants of the father with personal 
favorites of their own age, inexperienced and 
incompetent, and as conceited as themselves. 
Alexander, however, made no such changes. 
He continued the old officers in command, en* 
deavoring to have every thing go on just as if 
his father had not died. 

There were two officers in particular w4ia 
were the ministers on whom Philip had mainly 
relied. Their names were Antipater and Par- 
menio. Antipater had charge of the civil, and 



B-C.336.] Beginning of his Reign. 47 

Parmenio. Cities of Southern Greece 

Parmenio of military affairs. Parmenio was a 
very distinguished general. He was at this 
time nearly sixty years of age. Alexander had 
great confidence in his military powers, and felt 
a strong personal attachment for him. Parme- 
nio entered into the young king's service with 
great readiness, and accompanied him through 
almost the whole of his career. It seemed 
strange to see men of such age, standing, and 
experience, obeying the orders of such a boy ; 
but there was something in the genius, the pow- 
er, and the enthusiasm of Alexander's charac- 
ter which inspired ardor in all around him, and 
made every one eager to join his standard and 
to aid in the execution of his plans. 

Macedon, as will be seen on the following map, 
was in the northern part of the country occupied 
by the Greeks, and the most powerful states of 
the confederacy and all the great and influen- 
tial cities were south of it. There was Athens, 
which was magnificently built, its splendid cit- 
adel crowning a rocky hill in the center of it. 
It was the great seat of literature, philosophy, 
and the arts, and was thus a center of attrac- 
tion for all the civilized world. There was Cor- 
inth, which was distinguished for the gayety 
and pleasure which reigned there. All possibltJ 
22 



43 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 336. 



Map of Macedon and Greece. 



Athens and Corinth 




means of luxury and amusement were concen- 
trated within its walls. The lovers of knowl- 
edge and of art, from all parts of the earth, 
flocked to Athens, while those in pursuit of 
pleasure^ dissipation, and indulgence chose 
Corinth for their home. Corinth was beauti- 
fully situated on the isthmus, with prospects 
of the sea on either hand. It had been a fa 



B.C. 336.] Beginning of hig Keign. 49 



Thebes. Sparta. 

mous city for a thousand years in Alexander's 
day. 

There was also Thebes. Thebes was farther 
north than Athens and Corinth. It was situ- 
ated on an elevated plain, and had, like other 
ancient cities, a strong citadel, where there was 
at this time a Macedonian garrison, which Phil- 
ip had placed there. Thebes was very wealthy 
and powerful. It had also been celebrated as 
the birth-place of many poets and philosophers, 
and other eminent men. Among these wa£ 
Pindar, a very celebrated poet who had flourish- 
ed one or two centuries before the time of Alex- 
ander. His descendants still lived in Thebes, 
and Alexander, some time after this, had occasion 
to confer upon them a very distinguished honor. 

There was Sparta also, called sometimes 
Lacedaemon. The inhabitants of this city were 
famed for their courage, hardihood, and physic- 
al strength, and for the energy with which they 
devoted themselves to the work of war. They 
were nearly all soldiers, and all the arrange- 
ments of the state and of society, and all the 
plans of education, were designed to promote 
military ambition and pride among the officers, 
and fierce and indomitable courage and endur* 
ance in the men. 

n 



50 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 3o(3 

Conquests of Pliilip. Alexander marclies southward 

These cities and many others, with the states 
which were attached to them, formed a large, 
and flourishing, and very powerful community, 
extending over all that part of Greece which 
lay south of Macedon. Philip, as has been al- 
ready said, had established his own ascendency 
over all this region, though it had cost him 
many perplexing negotiations and some hard- 
fought battles to do it. Alexander considered 
it somewhat uncertain whether the people of all 
these states and cities would be disposed to trans- 
fer readily, to so youthful a prince as he, the 
high commission which his father, a very pow- 
erful monarch and soldier, had extorted from 
them with so much difficulty. What should 
he do in the case ? Should he give up the ex- 
pectation of it? Should he send embassaaors 
to them, presenting his claims to occupy his 
father's place? Or should he not act at all, 
but wait quietly at home in Macedon until 
they should decide the question ? 

Instead of doing either of these things, Alex- 
ander decided on the very bold step of setting 
out himself, at the head of an army, to march 
into southern Greece, for the purpose oi pre- 
Bcnting in person, and, if necessary, of enforc* 
ins: his claim to the same post of honor and 



B.C. 336.] I^EGINNING OF HIS K £ I G N. 51 
Pass of Thermopylae. The Amphictyonic Council 

power which had been conferred upon his father. 
Considering all the circumstances of the case, 
this was perhaps one of the boldest and most de- 
cided steps of Alexander's whole career. Many 
of his Macedonian advisers counseled him not 
to make such an attempt ; but Alexander would 
not listen to any such cautions. He collected 
his forces, and set forth at the head of them. 

Between Macedon and the southern states of 
Greece was a range of lofty and almost impass- 
able mountains. These mountains extended 
through the whole interior of the country, and 
the main route leading into southern Greece 
passed around to the eastward of them, where 
they terminated in cliffs, leaving a narrow pas- 
sage between the cliffs and the sea. This pass 
was called the Pass of Thermopylae, and it was 
considered the key to Greece. There was a 
town named Anthela near the pass, on the out- 
ward side. 

There was in those days a sort of general con- 
gress or assembly of the states of Greece, which 
was held from time to time, to decide questions 
and disputes in Vvdiich the different states were 
continually getting involved with each other. 
This assembly was called the Amphictyonic 
Council, on account, as is said, of its having been 



52 Alexander the Great. [B.C.S36 

March through Thessaly. Alexander's traits of character 

established by a certain king named Amphicty- 
on. A meeting of this council was appointed to 
receive Alexander. It was to be held at Ther- 
mopylae, or, rather, at Anthela, which was just 
without the pass, and was the usual place at 
which the council assembled. This was be- 
cause the pass was in an intermediate position 
between the northern and southern portions of 
Greece, and thus equally accessible from either. 
In proceeding to the southward, Alexander 
had first to pass through Thessaly, which was 
a very powerful state immediately south of 
Macedon. He met with some show of resist- 
ance at first, but not nmch. The country was 
impressed with the boldness and decision of 
character manifested in the taking of such a 
course by so young a man. Then, too, Alex- 
ander, so far as he became personally known, 
made a very favorable impression upon every 
one. His manly and athletic form, his frank 
and open manners, his spirit, his generosity, 
and a certain air of confidence, independence, 
and conscious superiority, which were com- 
bined, as they always are in the case of true 
greatness, with an unaffected and unassuming 
modesty — these and other traits, which were 
obvious to all who saw him, in the person and 



B.C,336.] Beginning of his Reign. 53 

The Thessalians join Alexander. He sits in the Amphictyonic Council 

character of Alexander, made every one his 
friend. Common men take pleasure in yield- 
ing to the influence and ascendency of one 
v/hose spirit they see and feel stands on a high- 
er eminence and wields higher powers than 
their own. They like a leader. It is true, they 
must feel confident of his superiority ; but when 
this superiority stands out so clearly and dis- 
tinctly marked, combined, too, with all the gra- 
ces and attractions of youth and manly beauty, 
as it was in the case of Alexander, the minds 
of men are brought very easily and rapidly un- 
der its sway. 

The Thessalians gave Alexander a very fa- 
vorable reception. They expressed a cordial 
readiness to instate him in the position which 
his father had occupied. They joined their for- 
ces to his, and proceeded southward toward the 
Pass of Thermopylae. 

Here the great council was held. Alexander 
took his place in it as a member. Of course, he 
must have been an object of universal interest 
and attention. The impression which he made 
here seems to have been very favorable. After 
this assembly separated, Alexander proceeded 
southward, accompanied by his own forces, and 
t^)nded by the various princes and potentates 



54 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 336 

ThemiopylsB. Leonidas and his Spartana 

of Greece, with their attendants and followers 
The feelings of exultation and pleasure with 
which the young king defiled through the Pass 
of Thermopylae, thus attended, must have been 
exciting in the extreme. 

The Pass of Thermopylae was a scene strong- 
ly associated with ideas of military glory and 
renown. It was here that, about a hundred and 
fifty years before, Leonidas, a Spartan general, 
with only three hundred soldiers, had attempted 
to withstand the pressure of an immense Per- 
sian force which was at that time invading 
Greece. He was one of the kings of Sparta, 
and he had the command, not only of his three 
hundred Spartans, but also of all the allied for- 
ces of the Greeks that had been assembled to 
repel the Persian invasion. With the help of 
these allies he withstood the Persian forces for 
some time, and as the pass was so narrow be- 
tween the cliffs and the sea, he was enabled to 
resist them successfully. At length, however, 
a strong detachment from the immense Persian 
army contrived to find their way over the mount- 
ains and around the pass, so as to establish them- 
selves in a position from v/hich they could come 
clown upon the small Greek army in their rear. 
Leonidas, perceiving this, ordered all his allies 



B.C. 336.] Beginning of his Reign. 55 

Death of Leonidas. Spartan vaior 

from the other states of Greece to withdraw, 
leaving himself and his three hundred country- 
men alone in the defile. 

He did not expect to repel his enemies or to 
defend the pass. He knew that he must die, 
and all his brave followers with him, and that 
the torrent of invaders would pour down through 
the pass over their bodies. But he considered 
himself stationed there to defend the passage, 
and he would not desert his post. When the 
battle came on he was the first to fall. The 
soldiers gathered around him and defended his 
dead body as long as they could. At length, 
overpowered by the immense numbers of their 
foes, they were all killed but one man. He 
made his escape and returned to Sparta. A 
monument v/as erected on the spot with this in- 
scription : " Go, traveler, to Sparta, and say that 
we lie here, on the spot at which we were sta- 
tioned to defend our country." 

Alexander passed through the defile. He ad- 
vanced to the great cities south of it — to Athens. 
to Thebes, and to Corinth. Another great as- 
sembly of all the monarchs and potentates of 
Greece w^as convened in Corinth ; and here Al- 
exander attained the object of his ambition, in 
having the command of the great exp Bdition into 



56 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 336> 

Alexander made commander-in-chief. He returns to Macedon, 

Asia conferred upon him. The impression which 
he made upon those with whom he came into 
connection by his personal qualities must have 
been favorable in the extreme. That such a 
youthful prince should be selected by so power- 
ful a confederation of nations as their leader in 
such an enterprise as they were about to en- 
gage in, indicates a most extraordinary power 
on his part of acquiring an ascendency over the 
minds of men, and of impressing all with a sense 
of his commanding superiority. Alexander re- 
turned to Macedon from his expedition to the 
southward in triumph, and began at once to 
arrange the affairs of his kingdom, so as to be 
ready to enter, unembarrassed, upon the great 
career of conquest which he imagined was be« 
fore him. 



B.C. 335.] The Reaction. 57 

Mount Usemufl. Tbr ace 



Chapter III. 

The Reaciion. 

ri'^HE country which was formerly occupied 
-*- by Macedon and the other states of Greece 
is now Turkey in Europe. In the northern part 
of it is a vast chain of mountains called now the 
Balkan. In Alexander's day it was Mount Hae- 
mus. This chain forms a broad belt of lofty 
and uninhabitable land, and extends from the 
Black Sea to the Adriatic. 

A branch of this mountain range, called Rho- 
dope, extends southwardly from about the mid- 
dle of its length, as may be seen by the map. 
Rhodope separated Macedonia from a large and 
powerful country, which was occupied by a 
somewhat rude but warlike race of men. This 
country was Thrace. Thrace was one great fer- 
tile basin or valley, sloping toward the center 
in every direction, so that all the streams from 
the mountains, increased by the rains which fell 
over the whole surface of the ground, flowed to- 
gether into one river, which meandered through 
the center of the valley, and flowed out at last 
into the ^gean Sea. The name of this river 



58 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 335 

The Hebrus. Valley of the Danube 

WSLS the Hebrus. All this may be seen distinct- 
ly upon the map 




The Balkan, or Mount Hsemus, as it \va3 
then called, formed the great northern frontiet 
of Macedon and Thrace. From the summits of 
the range, looking northward, the eye surveyed 
a vast extent of land, constituting one of the 
most extensive and fertile valleys on the globe. 



B.C. 335.] The Reaction. 59 

Thrace. Revolt among tlie noithern nations 

rt was the valley of the Danabe. It was in- 
habited, in those days, by rude tribes whom the 
Ci reeks and Romans always designated as bar- 
barians. They were, at any rate, wild and war- 
'ike, and, as they had not the art of writing, 
they have left us no records of their institutions 
or their history. We know nothing of them, or 
of the other half-civilized nations that occupied 
the central parts of Europe in those days, ex- 
cept what their inveterate and perpetual ene- 
mies have thought fit to tell us. According to 
their story, these countries were filled with na- 
tions and tribes of a wild and half-savage char- 
acter, who could be kept in check only by tho 
most vigorous exertion of military power. 

Soon after Alexander's return into Macedon, 
he learned that there were symptoms of revolt 
among these nations. Philip had subdued them, 
and established the kind of peace which the 
Greeks and Romans were accustomed to en- 
force upon their neighbors. But now, as they 
had heard that Philip, who had been so terrible 
a warrior, was no more, and that his son, scarce- 
ly out of his teens, had succeeded to the throne, 
they thought a suitable occasion had arrived to 
try their strength. Alexander made immediate 
arrangements for moving northward with his 
army to settle th.s question. 



60 A.LEXANDLR THE GrEAT. [B.C. 335. 

Alexander inarches north. Old Boreas 

He conducted his forces through a part of 
Thrace without meeting with any serious re- 
gistance, and approached the mountains. The 
soldiers looked upon the rugged precipices and 
lofty summits before them with awe. These 
northern mountains were the seat and throne, 
in the imaginations of the Greeks and Romans, 
of old Boreas, the hoary god of the north wind. 
They conceived of him as dwelling among those 
cold and stormy summits, and making excur- 
sions in winter, carrying with him his vast 
stores of frost and snow, over the southern val- 
leys and plains. He had wings, a long beard, 
and white locks, all powdered with flakes of 
snow. Instead of feet, his body terminated in 
tails of serpents, which, as he flew along, lashed 
the air, writhing from under his robes. He was 
violent and impetuous in temper, rejoicing in 
the devastation of winter, and in all the sublime 
phenomena of tempests, cold, and snow. The 
Greek conception of Boreas made an impression 
upon the human mind that twenty centuries 
have not been able to efface. The north wind 
of winter is personified as Boreas to the pres- 
ent day in the literature of every nation of the 
Western world. 

The Thracian forces had assembled in the de« 



B.C. 33o.] The Reaction. 63 

Contest among the mountains. The loaded wagons. 

files, with other troops from the northern coun- 
tries, to arrest Alexander's march, and he had 
some difficulty in repelling them. They had 
got, it is said, some sort of loaded wagons upon 
the summit of an ascent, in the pass of the 
mountains, up which Alexander's forces would 
have to march. These wagons were to be run 
down upon them as they ascended. Alexander 
ordered his men to advance, notwithstanding this 
danger. He directed them, where it was prac- 
ticable, to open to one side and the other, and 
allow the descending wagon to pass through. 
When this could not be done, they vv^ere to fall 
down upon the ground when they saw this 
strange military engine coming, and locking 
their shields together over their heads, allow the 
wagon to roll on over them, bracing up ener- 
getically against its weight. Notwithstanding 
these precautions, and the prodigious muscular 
power with which they were carried into effect, 
some of the men were crushed. The great body 
of the army was, however, unharmed ; as soon 
as the force of the wagons was spent, they 
rushed up the ascent, and attacked their ene- 
mies with their pikes. The barbarians fled in 
all directions, terrified at the force and invul- 
nerability of men whom loaded wagons, rolling 



62 Alexander the Great, [h C. 335 

Alexander's victorious march. Mouths of .he Danube 

over their bodies down a steep descent, could 
not kill. 

Alexander advanced from one conquest liko 
this to another, moving toward the northward 
and eastward after he had crossed the mount- 
ains, until at length he approached the mouths, 
of the Danube. Here one of the great chieftaim 
of the barbarian tribes had taken up his posi- 
tion, with his family and court, and a principal 
part of his army, upon an island called Pence, 
which may be seen upon the map at the begin- 
ning of this chapter. This island divided the 
current of the stream, and Alexander, in at- 
tempting to attack it, found that it would be 
best to endeavor to effect a landing upon the 
upper point of it. 

To make this attempt, he collected all the 
boats and vessels which he could obtain, and 
embarked his troops in them above, directing 
them to fall down with the current, and to land 
upon the island. This plan, however, did not 
succeed very w^ell ; the current was too rapid 
for the proper management of the boats. The 
shores, too, were lined with the forces of the 
enemy, who discharged showers of spears and 
arrows at the men, and pushed off the boats 
when they attempted to land. Alexander at 



B.C. 335.J The Reaction. 63 

Alexander resolves to cross the Danube. Preparations, 

lengtli gave up the attempt, and concluded to 
leave the island, and to cross the river itself 
further above, and thus carry the war into the 
very heart of the country. 

It is a serious undertaking to get a great body 
of men and horses across a broad and rapid riv- 
er, when the people of the country have done ah 
in their power to remove or destroy all possible 
means of transit, and when hostile bands are on 
the opposite bank, to embarrass and impede the 
operations by every mode in their power. Al- 
exander, however, advanced to the undertaking 
with great resolution. To cross the Danube es- 
pecially, with a military force, was, in those 
days, in the estimation of the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, a very great exploit. The river was so 
distant, so broad and rapid, and its banks were 
Dordered and defended by such ferocious foes, 
that to cross its eddying tide, and penetrate into 
the unknown and unexplored regions beyond, 
leaving the broad, and deep, and rapid stream 
to cut off the hope3 of retreat, implied the pos- 
session of extreme self-reliance, courage, and 
decision. 

Alexander collected all the canoes and boats 
which he could obtain up and down the river. 
He built large rafts, attaching to them the skins 
23 



64 Alexander the Great. [JJ.C. 335 

The river crossed. The landing, 

of beasts sewed together and inflated, to give 
them buoyancy. When all was ready, they be- 
gan the transportation of the army in the nighty 
in a place where the enemy had not expected 
that the attempt would have been made. There 
were a thousand horses, with their riders, and 
four thousand foot soldiers, to be conveyed across. 
It is customary, in such cases, to swim the horses 
over, leading them by lines, the ends of which 
are held by men in boats. The men themselves, 
with all the arms, ammunition, and baggage, had 
to be carried over in the boats or upon the rafts. 
Before morning the whole w^as accomplished. 

The army landed in a field of grain. This 
circumstance, which is casually mentioned by 
historians, and also the story of the wagons in 
the passes of Mount Hsemus, proves that these 
northern nations were not absolute barbarians 
in the sense in which that term is used at the 
present day. The arts of cultivation and of con- 
struction must have made some progress among 
them, at any rate ; and they proved, by some of 
their conflicts with Alexander, that they were 
well-trained and well-disciplined soldiers. 

The Macedonians swept down the waving 
grain with their pikes, to open a way for the 
advance of the cavalry, and early in the morn- 



B.C. 335.] The Reaction. 65 

Northern nations subdued. Alexander returns to Macedon. 

ing Alexander found and attacked the army of 
his enemies, who were utterly astonished at 
finding him on their side of the river. As may 
be easily anticipated, the barbarian army was 
beaten in the battle that ensued. Their city 
was taken. The booty was taken back across 
the Danube to be distributed among the soldiers 
of the army. The neighboring naitions and tribes 
were overawed and subdued by this exhibition 
of Alexander's courage and energy. He made 
satisfactory treaties with them all ; took hosta- 
ges, where necessary, to secure the observance 
of the treaties, and then recrossed the Danube 
and set out on his return to Macedon. 

He found that it was time for him to return. 
The southern cities and states of Greece had 
not been unanimous in raising him to the office 
which his father had held. The Spartans and 
some others were opposed to him. The party 
thus opposed were inactive and silent while Al- 
exander was in their country, on his first visit 
to southern Greece ; but after his return they 
began to contemplate more decisive action, and 
afterward, when they heard of his having un- 
dertaken so desperate an enterprise as going 
northward with his forces, and actually cross- 
ing the Danube, they considered him as so com* 
E 



66 Alexander the Great. [6.0.335 



Rebellion of Thebes. Siege of the citada- 

pletely out of the way that they grew very cour 
ageoTis, and meditated open rebellion. 

The city of Thebes did at length rebel. Philip 
had conquered this city in former struggles, and 
had left a Macedonian garrison there in the cit 
adel. The name of the citadel was Cadmeia. 
The officers of the garrison, supposing that all 
was secure, left the soldiers in the citadel, and 
came, themselves, down to the city to reside. 
Things were in this condition when the rebellion 
against Alexander's authority broke out. They 
killed the officers who were in the city, and sum- 
moned the garrison to surrender. The garrison 
refused, and the Thebans besieged it. 

This outbreak against Alexander's authority 
was in a great measure the work of the great 
orator Demosthenes, who spared no exertions 
to arouse the southern states of Greece to re- 
sist Alexander's dominion. He especially ex- 
erted all the powers of his eloquence in Athens 
in the endeavor to bring over the Athenians to 
take sides against Alexander. 

While things were in this state — the The- 
bans having understood that Alexander had 
been killed at the north, and supposing that, at 
all events, if this report should not be true, he 
"was, without doubt, etill far away, involved in 



B.C. 335.] The Reaction. 67 

Sudden appearaiice of Alexander. l[e invests Thebes- 

contentions with the barbarian nations, from 
which it was not to be expected that he could 
be very speedily extricated — the whole city was 
suddenly thrown into consternation by the re- 
port that a large Macedonian army was ap- 
proaching from the north, with Alexander at its 
head, and that it was, in fact, close upon them. 

It was now, however, too late for the The- 
bans to repent of what they had done. They 
were far too deeply impressed with a conviction 
of the decision and energy of Alexander's char- 
acter, as manifested in the whole course of his 
proceedings since he began to reign, and espe- 
cially by his sudden reappearance among them 
so soon after this outbreak against his authori- 
ty, to imagine that there was now any hope for 
them except in determined and successful re- 
sistance. They shut themselves up, therefore, 
in their city, and prepared to defend themselves 
to the last extremity. 

Alexander advanced, and, passing round the 
eily toward the southern side, established his 
head-quarters there, so as to cut off effectually 
all communication with Athens and the southern 
cities. . He then extended his posts all around 
the place so as to invest it entirely. These prep- 
arations made, he paused before he commenced 



68 Alexa.ndkr the Great. [B.C. 335. 

The Thebans refuse to surrender. Storming a city. 

the work of subduing the city, to give the in- 
habitants an opportunity to submit, if they 
would, without compelling him to resort to 
force. The conditions, however, which he im- 
posed were such that the Thebans thought it 
best to take their chance of resistance. They 
refused to surrender, and Alexander began to 
prepare for the onset. 

He was very soon ready, and with his char^ 
acteristic ardor and energy he determined on 
attempting to carry the city at once by assault. 
Fortified cities generally require a siege, and 
sometimes a very long siege, before they can be 
subdued. The army within, sheltered behind 
the parapets of the walls, and standing there in 
a position above that of their assailants, have 
such great advantages in the contest that a long 
time often elapses before they can be compelled 
to surrender. The besiegers have to invest the 
city on all sides to cut off all supplies of provis- 
ions, and then, in those days, they had to con- 
struct engines to make a breach somewhere in 
the walls, through which an assaulting party 
could attempt to force their way in. 

The time for making an assault upon a be- 
sieged city depends upon the comparative 
strengih of those within and without, and also. 



B.C. 335 J The Reaction, 69 

Undermining. MaMng a breach. Surrender 

still more, on the ardor and resolution of the 
besiegers. In warfare, an army, in investing 
a fortified place, spends ordinarily a consid- 
erable time in burrowing their way along in 
trenches, half under ground, until they get near 
enough to plant their cannon where the balls 
can take effect upon some part of the wall. 
Then some time usually elapses before a breach 
is made, and the garrison is sufficiently w^eak- 
ened to render an assault advisable. When, 
however, the time at length arrives, the most 
bold and desperate portion of the army are des- 
ignated to lead the attack. Bundles of small 
branches of trees are provided to fill up ditches 
with, and ladders for mounting embankments 
and walls. The city, sometimes, seeing these 
preparations going on, and convinced that the 
assault will be successful, surrenders before it is 
made. When the besieged do thus surrender, 
they save themselves a vast amount of suffer- 
ing, for the carrying of a city by assault is per- 
haps the most horrible scene which the passions 
and crimes of men ever offer to the view of 
heaven. 

It is horrible, because the soldiers, exasperated 
to fury by the resistance which they meet with, 
and by the awful malignity of the passions al- 



70 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 335. 

Carrying a city by assault. Scenes of horror. 

ways excited in the hour of battle, if they suc- 
ceed, burst suddenly into the precincts of do- 
mestic life, and find sometimes thousands of 
families — mothers, and children, and defense- 
less maidens — at the mercy of passions excited 
to phrensy. Soldiers, under such circumstan- 
ces, can not be restrained, and no imagination 
can conceive the horrors of the sacking of a city, 
carried by assault, after a protracted siege. Ti- 
gers do not spring upon their prey with greater 
ferocity than man springs, under such circum- 
stances, to the perpetration of every possible 
cruelty upon his fellow man. After an ordina- 
ry battle upon an open field, the conquerors have 
only men, armed like themselves, to wreak their 
vengeance upon. The scene is awful enough, 
however, here , But in carrying a city by storm, 
which takes place usually at an unexpected time, 
and often in the night, the maddened and victo- 
rious assaulters suddenly burst into the sacred 
scenes of domestic peace, and seclusion, and love 
— the very worst of men, filled with the worst 
of passions, stimulated by the resistance they 
have encountered, and licensed by their victory 
to give all these passions the fullest and most 
unrestricted gratification. To plunder, burn, 
destroy, and kill, arc the lighter and more harm- 
less of the crimes they perpetrate. 



B.C. 335.] The Reaction. 71 

The JCB carried by assault. Great loss of life. 

Thebes was carried by assault. Alexander 
did not wait for the slow operations of a siege. 
He watched a favorable opportunity, and burst 
over and through the outer line of fortifications 
which defended the city. The attempt to do 
this was very desperate, and the loss of life great ; 
but it was triumphantly successful. The The- 
bans were driven back toward the inner wall, and 
began to crowd in, through the gates, into the 
city, in terrible confusion. The Macedonians 
were close upon them, and pursuers and pur- 
sued, struggling together, and trampling upon 
and killing each other as they went, flowed in, 
like a boiling and raging torrent which nothing 
could resist, through the open arch- way. 

It was impossible to close the gates. The 
whole Macedonian force were soon in full pos- 
session of the now defenseless houses, and for 
many hours screams, and wailings, and cries of 
horror and despair testified to the awful atrocity 
of the crimes attendant on the sacking of a city. 
At length the soldiery were restrained. Order 
was restored. The army retired to the posts 
assigned them, and Alexander began to delib- 
erate what he should do with the conquered 
town. 

He determined to destroy it — to offer, once for 



72 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 335. 

Thebes destroyed. The mariner of doing it 

all, a terrible example of the consequences of 
rebellion against him. The case was not one, 
he considered, of the ordinary conquest of a foe. 
The states of Greece — Thebes with the rest — 
had once solemnly conferred upon him the au- 
thority against which the Thebans had now re- 
belled. They were traitors^ therefore, in his 
judgment, not mere enemies, and he determined 
that the penalty should be utter destruction. 

But, in carrying this terrible decision into ef- 
fect, he acted in a manner so deliberate, dis- 
criminating, and cautious, as to diminish very 
much the irritation and resentment which it 
would otherwise have caused, and to give it its 
full moral effect as a measure, not of angry re- 
sentment, but of calm and deliberate retribution 
— just and proper, according to the ideas of the 
time. In the first place, he released all the 
priests. Then, in respect to the rest of the pop- 
ulation, he discriminated carefully between those 
who had favored the rebellion and those who 
had been true to their allegiance to him. The 
latter were allowed to depart in safety. And if, 
in the case of any family, it could be shown that 
one individual had been on the Macedonian side, 
the single instance of fidelity outweighed the 
treason of the other members, and the whole 
family was saved 



B.C. 335.] The Reaction. 73 

Alexander's moderation and forbearance. Family of Pindar spaied. 

And the officers appointed to carry out these 
provisions were liberal in the interpretation and 
application of them, so as to save as many as 
there could be any possible pretext for saving. 
The descendants and family connections of Pin* 
dar, the celebrated poet, who has been already 
mentioned as having been born in Thebes, were 
all pardoned also, whichever side they may have 
taken in the contest. The truth was, that Al- 
exander, though he had the sagacity to see that 
he was placed in circumstances where prodig- 
ious moral effect in strengthening his position 
would be produced by an act of great severity, 
was swayed by so many generous impulses, 
which raised him above the ordinary excite- 
ments of irritation and revenge, that he had 
every desire to make the suffering as light, and 
to limit it by as narrow bounds, as the nature 
of the case would allow. He doubtless also had 
an instinctive feeling that the moral effect it- 
self of so dreadful a retribution as he was about 
to inflict upon the devoted city would be verj 
mu3h increased by forbearance and generosity, 
and by extreme regard for the security and pro- 
tection of those who had shown themselves his 
friends. 

After all these exceptions had been made, 



74 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 335. 

ITie number saved. Efforts of Demosthenes 

and the persons to whom they applied had been 
dismissed, the rest of the population were sold 
into slavery, and then the city was utterly and 
entirely destroyed. The number thus sold was 
about thirty thousand, and six thousand had 
been killed in the assault and storming of the 
city. Thus Thebes w^as made a ruin and a 
desolation, and it remained so, a monument of 
Alexander's terrible energy and decision, foi 
twenty years. 

The effect of the destruction of Thebes upoi* 
the other cities and states of Greece was whal 
might have been expected. It came upon them 
like a thunder-bolt. Although Thebes was the 
only city which had openly revolted, there had 
been strong symptoms of disaffection in many 
other places. Demosthenes, who had been si- 
lent while Alexander was present in Greece, 
during his first visit there, had again been en- 
deavoring to arouse opposition to Macedonian 
ascendency, and to concentrate and bring out 
into action the influences which were hostile to 
Alexander. He said in his speeches that Al* 
exander was a mere boy, and that it was dis- 
graceful for such cities as Athens, Sparta, and 
Thebes to submit to his sway. Alexander had 
heard of these things, and, as he was coming 



B.C. 335.] The Reaction. 75 

The bey proves to be a man. All disafFection subdued. 

down into Greece, through the Straits of Ther- 
mopylae, before the destruction of Thebes, he 
said, ^' They say I am a boy. I am coming to 
teach them that I am a man." 

Ho did teach them that he was a man. His 
unexpected appearance, when they imagined 
him entangled among the mountains and wilds 
of unknown regions in the north ; his sudden 
investiture of Thebes ; the assault ; the calm 
deliberations in respect to the destiny of the 
city, and the slow, cautious, discriminating, but 
inexorable energy with which the decision was 
carried into effect, all coming in such rapid suc- 
cession, impressed the Grecian commonwealth 
with the conviction that the personage they had 
to deal with was no boy in character, whatever 
might be his years. All symptoms of disaffec- 
tion against the rule of Alexander instantly dis- 
appeared, and did not soon revive again. 

Nor was this effect due entirely to the terror 
inspired by the retribution which had been vis- 
ited upon Thebes. All Greece was impress- 
ed with a new admiration for Alexander's char- 
acter as they witnessed these events, in which 
his impetuous energy, his cool and calm decis- 
ion, his forbearance, his magnanimity, and his 
faithfulness to his friends, were all so conspicu» 



76 Alexander the (Jreat. [B.C. 335, 

Moral effect of the destruction of Thebes. 

ous. His pardoning the priests, whether they 
had been for him or against him, made every 
friend of religion incline to his favor. The same 
interposition in behalf of the poet's family and 
descendants spoke directly to the heart of every 
poet, orator, historian, and philosopher through- 
out the country, and tended to make all the 
lovers of literature his friends. His magnanim- 
ity, also, in deciding that one single friend of his 
in a family should save that family, instead of 
ordaining, as a more short-sighti^d conqueror 
would have done, that a single enemy should 
condemn it, must have awakened a strong feel- 
ing of gratitude and regard in the hearts of all 
who could appreciate fidelity to friends and gen- 
erosity of spirit. Thus, as the news of the de- 
struction of Thebes, and the selling of so large 
a portion of the inhabitants into slavery, spread 
over the land, its effect was to turn over so 
great a part of the population to a feeling of 
admiration of Alexander's character, and confi- 
dence in his extraordinary powers, as to leave 
only a small minority disposed to take sides 
with the punished rebels, or resent the destruc- 
tion of the city. 

From Thebes Alexander proceeded to the 
southward. Deputations from the cities were 



B.C. 335.] The Reaction. 77 

Alexander retnims to Macedon. Celebrates his victories. 

sent to him, congratulating him on his victories, 
and offering their adhesion to his cause. His 
influence and ascendency seemed firmly estab- 
lished now in the country of the Greeks, and 
in due time he returned to Macedon, and cele- 
brated at ^g3e, which was at this time his 
capital, the establishment and confirmation of 
his power, by games, shows, spectacles, illumi- 
nations, and sacrifices to the gods, offered on a 
scale, of the greatest pomp and magnificence 
He was now ready to turn his thoughts toward 
the long-projected plan of the expedition into 
Asia, 



78 Alexander the Great. [B.C.o34. 

Tbo expedition into Asia. Debates upon it- 



Chapter IV. 

Crossing the Hellespont. 

/^N Alexander's arrival in Macedon, he im- 
^^ mediately began to turn his attention to 
the subject of the invasion of Asia. He w^as 
full of ardor and enthusiasm to carry this pro- 
ject into effect. Considering his extreme youth, 
and the captivating character of the enterprise, 
it is strange that he should have exercised so 
much deliberation and caution as his conduct 
did really evince. He had now settled every 
thing in the most thorough manner, both with- 
in his dominions and among the nations on his 
borders, and, as it seemed to him, the time had 
come when he was to commence active prepa- 
rations for the great Asiatic campaign. 

He brought the subject before his ministers 
and counselors. They, in general, concurred 
with him in opinion. There were, however, 
two who were in doubt, or rather who were, in 
fact, opposed to the plan, though they expressed 
their non-concurrence in the form of doubts. 
These two persons were Antipater and Par- 



B.C. 334.] The Hellespont. 79 

Objections of Antipater and Parmenio. Their foresight 

menio, the venerable officers who have been al- 
ready mentioned as having served Philip so 
faithfully, and as transferring, on the death of 
.he father, their attachment and allegiance at 
once to the son. 

Antipater and Parmenio represented to Al« 
exander that if he were to go to Asia at that 
time, he would put to extreme hazard all the in- 
terests of Macedon. As he had no family, there 
was, of course, no direct heir to the crown, and, 
in case of any misfortune happening by which 
his life should be lost, Macedon would become 
at once the prey of contending factions, which 
would immediately arise, each presenting its 
own candidate for the vacant throne. The sa- 
gacity and foresight which these statesmen 
evinced in these suggestions were abundantly 
confirmed in the end. Alexander did die in 
Asia, his vast kingdom at once fell into pieces, 
and it was desolated with internal commotions 
and civil wars for a long period after his death. 

Parmenio and Antipater accordingly advised 
the king to postpone his expedition. They ad- 
vised him to seek a wife among the princcjsses 
of Greece, and then to settle down quietly to 
the duties of domestic life, and to the govern- 
ment of his kingdom for a few years: then, 
24 



80 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 

Alexander decides to go. Preparations, 

wlien every thing should have become settled 
and consolidated in Greece, and his family was 
established in the hearts of his countrymen, he 
could leave Macedon more safely. Public af- 
fairs would go on more steadily while he lived, 
and, in case of his death, the crown would de- 
scend, with comparatively little danger of civil 
commotion, to his heir. 

But Alexander was fully decided against any 
such policy as this. He resolved to embark in 
the great expedition at once. He concluded to 
make Antipater his vicegerent in Macedon dur- 
ing his absence, and to take Parmenio with him 
into Asia. It will be remembered that Antipa- 
ter was the statesman and Parmenio the gen- 
eral ; that is, Antipater had been employed more 
by Philip in civil, and Parmenio in military af 
fairs, though in those days every body who was 
in public life was more or less a soldier. 

Alexander left an army of ten or twelve thou 
sand men with Antipater for the protection of 
Macedon. He organized another army of about 
thirty-five thousand to go with him. This was 
considered a very small army for such a vast 
undertaking. One or two hundred years before 
this time, Darius, a king of Persia, had invaded 
Oreece with an armv of five hundred thousand 



B.C. 334.] The HEr.LESPONT. 8] 

Description of Thrace. Vale of Tempe. Olympus. 

men, and yet he had been defeated and driven 
back, and now Alexander was undertaking to 
retaliate with a great deal less than one tenth 
part of the force. 

Of Alexander's army of thirty-five thousand, 
thirty thousand were foot soldiers, and about 
five thousand were horse. More than half the 
whole army was from Macedon. The remain- 
der was from the southern states of Greece. A 
large body of the horse was from Thessaly, which, 
as will be seen on the map,^ was a country south 
of Macedon. It was, in fact, one broad expand- 
ed valley, with mountains all around. Tor- 
rents descended from these mountains, forming 
streams which flowed in currents more and more 
deep and slow as they descended into the plains, 
and combining at last into one central river, 
which flowed to the eastward, and escaped from 
the environage of mountains through a most 
celebrated dell called the Vale of Tempe. On 
the north of this valley is Olympus, and on the 
south the two twin mountains Pelion and Ossa. 
There was an ancient story of a war in Thes- 
sa\y between the giants who were imagined to 
have lived there in very early days, and the 
^ods. The giants piled Pelion upon Ossa to 

* At the commencement of Chapter iii. 

F 



82 Alexander ihe Great. [B C. 334 

Pelion and Ossa. Alexander's generosity. 



enable them to get up to heaven in their assault 
upon their celestial eneijiies. The fable has 
led to a proTerb which prevails in every lan- 
guage in Europe, by which all extravagant and 
unheard-of exertions to accomplish an end is 
said to be a piling of Pelion upon Ossa. 

Thessaly was famous for its horses and its 
horsemen. The slopes of the mountains fur- 
nished the best of pasturage for the rearing of 
the animals, and the plains below afforded broad 
and open fields for training and exercising the 
bodies of cavalry formed by means of them. 
The Thessalian horse were famous throughout 
all Greece. Bucephalus was reared in Thessaly. 

Alexander, as king of Macedon, possessed ex- 
tensive estates and revenues, which were his 
own personal property, and were independent 
of the revenues of the state. Before setting 
out on his expedition, he apportioned these 
among his great officers and generals, both 
those who were to go and those who were to 
remain. He evinced great generosity in this ; 
but it was, after all, the spirit of ambition, more 
than that of generosity, which led him to do it. 
The two great impulses which animated him 
were the pleasure of doing great deeds, and the 
fame and glory of having done them. These 



B.C.334.] The Hellespont 83 

Love of money. Religious sacrifices and spectacleai 

two principles are very distinct in their nature, 
though often conjoined. They were paramount 
and supreme in Alexander's character, and ev- 
ery other human principle was subordinate to 
them. Money was to him, accordingly, only a 
means to enable him to accomplish these ends. 
His distributing his estates and revenues in the 
manner above described was only a judicious ap- 
propriation of the money to the promotion of the 
great ends he wished to attain ; it was expendi- 
ture, not gift. It answered admirably the end 
he had in view. His friends all looked upon 
him as extremely generous and self-sacrificing. 
They asked him what he had reserved for him- 
self. " Hope," said Alexander. 

At length all things were ready, and Alexan- 
der began to celebrate the religious sacrifices, 
spectacles, and shows which, in those days, al- 
ways preceded great undertakings of this kind 
There was a great ceremony in honor of Jupi- 
ter and the nine Muses, which had long been 
celebrated in Macedon as a sort of annual na- 
tional festival. Alexander now caused great 
preparations for this festival. 

In the days of the Greeks, public worship and 
public amusement were combined in one and 
the same series of spectacles and ceremonies 



84 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 3o4. 



Ancient forms of worsMp. Religious instincts 

All worship was a theatrical show, and almost 
all shows were forms of worship. The religious 
instincts of the human heart demand some sort 
of sympathy and aid, real or imaginary, from 
the invisible world, in great and solemn under- 
takings, and in every momentous crisis in its 
history. It is true that Alexander's soldiers, 
about to leave their homes' to go to another 
:iuarter of the globe, and into scenes of danger 
and death from which it was very improbable 
that many of them would ever return, had no 
other celestial protection to look up to than the 
spirits of ancient heroes, who, they imagined, 
had, somehow or other, found their final home 
in a sort of heaven among the summits of the 
mountains, where they reigned, in some sense, 
over human affairs ; but this, small as it seems 
to us, was a great deal to them. They felt, 
when sacrificing to these gods, that they were 
invoking their presence and sympathy. These 
deities having been engaged in the same enter- 
prises themselves, and animated with the same 
hopes and fears, the soldiers imagined that the 
semi-human divinities invoked by them would 
take an interest in their dangers, and rejoice in 
their success. 

The Muses, in honor of whom, as well as Ju- 



B.C. 334.] The Hellespont. 85 

The nine Muses. Festivities in h mor ol Jupiter 

piter, this great Macedonian festival was held, 
were nine singing and dancing maidens, beau- 
tiful in countenance and form, and enchanting- 
ly graceful in all their movements. They came, 
the ancients imagined, from Thrace, in the 
north, and wen^ first to Jupiter upon Mount 
Olympus, who made them goddesses. After- 
ward they went southward, and spread over 
Greece, making their residence, at last, in a 
palace upon Mount Parnassus, which will be 
found upon the map just north of the Gulf of 
Corinth and west of Boeotia. They were wor- 
shiped all over Greece and Italy as the goddesses 
of music and dancing. In later times particu- 
lar sciences and arts were assigned to them re- 
spectively, as history, astronomy, tragedy, &c., 
though there was no distinction of this kind in 
early days. 

The festivities in honor of Jupiter and the 
Muses were continued in Macedon nine days, 
a number corresponding with that of the dano- 
ing goddesses. Alexander made very magnifi- 
cent preparations for the celebration on this oc- 
casion. He had a tent made, under which, it 
is said, a hundred tables could be spread ; and 
here he entertained, day after day, an enormous 
company of princes, potentates, and generals. 



86 Alexander th^ Great. [B.C. 334. 

Spectacles and shows. Alexander*s roufc^ 

He offered sacrifices to such of the gods as he 
supposed it would please the soldiers to imagine 
that they had propitiated. Connected with 
these sacrifices and feastings, there were ath- 
letic and military spectacles and shows — raccfe* 
and wrestlings — and mock contests, with blunt- 
ed spears. All these things encouraged and 
quickened the ardor and animation of the sol- 
diers. It aroused their ambition to distinguish 
themselves by their exploits, and gave them an 
increased and stimulated desire for honor and 
fame. Thus inspirited by new desires for hu- 
man praise, and trusting in the sympathy and 
protection of powers which were all that they 
conceived of as divine, the army prepared to set 
forth from their native land, bidding it a long, 
and, as it proved to most of them, a final farewell. 
By following the course of Alexander's expe- 
dition upon the map at the commencement of 
chapter iii., it will be seen that his route lay 
first along the northern coasts of the ^gean 
Sea. He was to pass from Europe into Asia 
by crossing the Hellespont between Sestos and 
Abydos. He sent a fleet of a hundred and fifty 
galleys, of three banks of oars each, over the 
^gean Sea, to land at Sestos, and be ready to 
transport his army across the straits. . The ar- 



S.a.SM.] The Hellespont. 87 

Alexander begins kis march. Romantic adventure 

my, in the mean time, marched by land. Thej' 
had to cross the rivers which flow into the ^ge' 
an Sea on the northern side ; but as these rivers 
were in Macedon, and no opposition was encoun- 
tered upon the banks of them, there was no se- 
rious difficulty in effecting the passage. When 
they reached Sestos, they found the fleet ready 
there, awaiting their arrival. 

It is very strikingly characteristic of the min- 
gling of poetic sentiment and enthusiasm with 
calm and calculating business efficiency, which 
shone conspicuously so often in Alexander's ca- 
reer, that when he arrived at Sestos, and found 
that the ships were there, and the army safe, 
and that there was no enemy to oppose his land- 
ing on the Asiatic shore, he left Parmenio to 
conduct the transportation of the troops across 
the water, while he himself went away in a 
single galley on an excursion of sentiment and 
romantic adventure. A little south of the place 
where his army was to cross, there lay, on the 
Asiatic shore, an extended plain, on which were 
the ruins of Troy. Now Troy was the city 
which was the scene of Homer's poems — ^those 
poems which had excited so much interest in 
the mind of Alf^xander in his early years; and 
lie determined, instead of crossing the Helles- 



88 Alexander the Gtreat [B.C. 334 



The plain of Troy 



Tenedos 



Moun' Ida 



Tlie Ccamandei- 




The Plain of Troy. 



pout with the main body of his army, to pro 
oeed southward in a single galley, and land, 
himself, on the Asiatic shore, on the very spot 
which the romantic imagination of his youth 
had dwelt upon so often and so long. 

Troy was situated upon a plain. Homer de- 
scribes an island off the coast, named Tenedos, 
and a mountain near called Mount Ida. There 
was also a river called the Scamander. The 
island, the mountain, and the river remain, pre- 
serving their original names to the present day, 



B.C.334.] The Hellespont. 89 

The Trojan war. Dream of Priam's wiJe 

except that the river is now called the Mender ; 
but, although various vestiges of ancient ruins 
are found scattered about the plain, no spot 
can be identified as the site of the city. Some 
scholars have maintained that there probably 
never was such a city ; that Homer invented 
the whole, there being nothing real in all that he 
describes except the river, the mountain, and 
the island. His story is, however, that there 
was a great and powerful city there, with a 
kingdom attached to it, and that this city was 
besieged by the Greeks for ten years, at the end 
of which time it was taken and destroyed. 

The story of the origin of this war is substan 
tially this. Priam was king of Troy. His wife, 
a short time before her son was born, dreamed 
that at his birth the child turned into a torch 
and set the palace on fire. She told this dream 
to the soothsayers, and asked them what it 
meant. They said it must mean that her son 
would be the means of bringing some terrible 
.calamities and disasters upon the family. The 
mother was terrified, and, to avert these calam- 
ities, gave the child to a slave as soon as it was 
born, and ordered him to destroy it. The slave 
pitied the helpless babe, and, not liking to de- 
stroy it with his own hand, carried it to Mount 
Ida, and left it there in the forests to die. 



90 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 

Exposure of Paris. The apple of discord 

A she bear, roaming through the woods, found 
the child, and, experiencing a feeling of mater- 
nal tenderness for it, she took care of it, and 
reared it as if it had been her own offspring, 
The child was found, at last, by some shepherds 
who lived upon the mountain, and they adopted 
it as their own, robbing the brute mother of her 
charge. They named the boy Paris. He grew 
in strength and beauty, and gave early and ex- 
traordinary proofs of courage and energy, as if 
he had imbibed some of the qualities of his fierce 
foster mother with the milk she gave him. He 
was so remarkable for athletic beauty and man- 
ly courage, that he not only easily won the heart 
of a nymph of Mount Ida, named QEnone, whom 
he married, but he also attracted the attention 
of the goddesses in the heavens. 

At length these goddesses had a dispute which 
they agreed to refer to him. The origin of the 
dispute was this. There was a wedding among 
them, and one of them, irritated at not having 
been invited, had a golden apple made, on which 
were engraved the words, '' To be given to the 
MOST BEAUTIFUL." She thrcw this apple into 
the assembly : her object was to make them 
quarrel for it. In fact, she was herself the god- 
dess of discord, and, independently of her cause 



B.C P.M.] The Hellespont. 91 

The dispute abr>ui. Ibe apple. Decided in favor of Venus, 



of pique in MjLs case, she loved to promote dis- 
putes. It is in allusion to this ancient tale that 
any subject of dispute, brought up unnecessari- 
ly among friends, is called to this day an apple 
of discord. 

Three of the goddesses claimed the apple, 
each insisting that she was more beautiful than 
the others, and this was the dispute which they 
agreed to refer to Paris. They accordingly ex- 
hibited themselves before him in the mountains, 
that he might look at them and decide. They 
did not, however, seem willing, either of them, 
to trust to an impartial decision of the question, 
but each offered the judge a bribe to induce him 
to decide in her favor. One promised him a 
kingdom, another great fame, and the third, 
Venus, promised him the most beautiful wom- 
an in the world for hit wife. He decided in fa- 
vor of Venus ; whethei because she was justly 
entitled to the decision, or through the influence 
of the bribe, the story does not say 

A.11 this time Paris remained on the mount- 
ain, a simple shepherd and herdsman, not know- 
ing his relationship to the monarch who reigned 
over the city and kingdom on the plain below. 
King Priam, however, about this time, in some 
games which he was celebrating, offered, as a 



92 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 

The story of the bull. Paris restored to his parents 

prize to the victor, the finest bull which could 
be obtained on Mount Ida. On making exam* 
ination, Paris was found to have the finest bull, 
and the king, exercising the despotic power 
which kings in those days made no scruple of 
assuming in respect to helpless peasants, took 
it away. Paris was very indignant. It hap- 
pened, however, that a short time afterward 
there was another opportunity to contend for 
the same bull, and Paris, disguising himself as 
a prince, appeared in the lists, conquered every 
competitor, and bore away the bull again to his 
home in the fastnesses of the mountain. 

In consequence of this his appearance at 
court, the daughter of Priam, whose name w^as 
Cassandra, became acquainted with him, and, 
inquiring into his story, succeeded in ascertain- 
ing that he was her brother, the long-lost child, 
that had been supposed to be put to death. King 
Priam was convinced by the evidence which she 
brought forward, and Paris was brought home 
to his father's house. After becoming estab^ 
lished in his new position, he remembered the 
promise of Venus that he should have the most 
beautiful woman in the world for his wife, and 
he began, accordingly, to inquire where he could 
find her. 



/k^' 




Paris and Helen. 



B.C. 334.] The Hellespont 95 

Abduction of Helen. Destruction of Troy. 

There was in Sparta, one of the cities of 
Southern Gre-ece, a certain king Menelaus, who 
had a youthful bride named Helen, who was 
famed far and near for her beauty. Paris came 
to the conclusion that she was the most lovely 
woman in the world, and that he was entitled, 
in virtue of Venus's promise, to obtain posses- 
sion of her, if he could do so by any means 
whatever. He accordingly made a journey into 
Greece, visited Sparta, formed an acquaintance 
with Helen, persuaded her to abandon her hus- 
band and her duty, and elope with him to Troy. 

Menelaus was indignant at this outrage. He 
called on all Greece to take up arms and join 
him in the attempt to recover his bride. They 
responded to this demand. They first sent to 
Priam, demanding that he should restore Helen 
to her husband. Priam refused to do so, tak- 
ing part with his son. The Greeks then raised 
a fleet and an army, and came to the plains of 
Troy, encamped before the city, and persevered 
for ten long years in besieging it, when at length 
it was taken and destroyed. 

These stories relating to the origin of the war, 
however, marvelous and entertaining as they 
are, were not the points which chiefly interest- 
ed the mind of Alexander. The portions of Ho* 
25 



96 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 

Homer's wi^itiiigs. Achilles. The Styx 

mer's narratives which most excited his enthu 
siasm were those relating to the characters of 
the heroes who fought, on one side and on the 
other, at the siege, their various adventures, 
and the delineations of their motives and prin* 
ciples of conduct, and the emotions and excite- 
ments they experienced in the various circum- 
stances in which they were placed. Homer de- 
scribed with great beauty and force the work- 
ings of ambition, of resentment, of pride, of ri- 
valry, and all those other impulses of the hu- 
man heart which would excite and control the 
action of impetuous men in the circumstances 
in which his heroes were placed. 

Each one of the heroes whose history and ad* 
ventures he gives, possessed a well-marked and 
striking character, and differed in temperament 
and action from the rest. Achilles was one. 
He was fiery, impetuous, and implacable in 
character, fierce and merciless ; and, though 
perfectly undaunted and fearless, entirely des- 
titute of magnanimity. There was a river call- 
ed the Styx, the waters of which were said to 
have the property of making any one invulner- 
able. The mother of Achilles dipped him into 
it in his infancy, holding him by the heel. The 
heel, not having been immersed, was the only 



B.C. 334.] The Hellespont. 97 

Cliai'acter of Achilles. Agamemnon. 




Achilles. 



part which could be wounded. Thus he was safe 
in battle, and was a terrible warrior. He, how- 
ever, quarreled with his comrades and withdrew 
from their cause on slight pretexts, and then be- 
came reconciled again, influenced by equally 
frivolous reasons. 

Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of 
the Greek army. After a certain victory, by 
which some captives were taken, and were to, 
be divided among the victors, Agamemnon was 
obliged to restore one, a noble lady, who had 
fallen to his share, and he took away the one 
that had been assigned to Achilles to replace 
her. This incensed Achilles, and he withdrew 
G 



98 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 

Death of Patroclus. Hector slain by Achilles, 

for a long time from the contest ; and, in conse- 
quence of his absence, the Trojans gained great 
and continued victories against the Greeks. 
For a long time nothing could induce Achilles 
to return. 

At length, however, though he would not go 
himself, he allowed his intimate friend, whose 
name was Patroclus, to take his armor and go 
into battle. Patroclus was at first successful, 
but was soon killed by Hector, the brother of 
Paris. This aroused anger and a spirit of re- 
venge in the mind of Achilles. He gave up his 
quarrel with Agamemnon and returned to the 
combat. He did not remit his exertions till he 
had slain Hector, and then he expressed his bru- 
tal exultation, and satisfied his revenge, by drag- 
ging the dead body at the wheels of his chariot 
around the walls of the city. He then sold the 
body to the distracted father for a ransom. 

It was such stories as these, which are re- 
lated in the poems of Homer with great beauty 
and power, that had chiefly interested the mind 
of Alexander. The subjects interested him ; 
the accounts of the contentions, the rivalries, 
the exploits of these warriors, the delineations 
of their character and springs of action, and the 
narrations of the various incidents and events to 



B.C. 334.] The Hellespont. 99 

Alexander proceeds to Troy. Neptune. 

which such a war gave rise, were all calculated 
to captivate the imagination of a young mar- 
tial hero. 

Alexander accordingly resolved that his first 
landing in Asia should be at Troy. He left his 
army under the charge of Parmenio, to cross 
from Sestos to Abydos, while he himself set 
forth in a single galley to proceed to the south- 
ward. There was a port on the Trojan shore 
where the Greeks had been accustomed to dis- 
embark, and he steered his course for it. He 
had a bull on board his galley which he was 
going to offer as a sacrifice to Neptune when 
half way from shore to shore. 

Neptune was the god of the sea. It is true 
that the Hellespont is not the open ocean, but 
it is an arm of the sea, and thus belonged prop- 
erly to the dominions which the ancients as- 
signed to the divinity of the waters. Neptune 
was conceived of by the ancients as a monarch 
dwelling on the seas or upon the coasts, and 
riding over the waves seated in a great shell, 
or sometimes in a chariot, drawn by dolphins or 
sea-horses. In these excursions he was attend- 
ed by a train of sea-gods and nymphs, who, half 
floating, half swimming, followed him over the 
billows. Instead of a scepter Neptune carried 



100 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 

Landing of Alexander. Sacrifices to the gods 

a trident. A trident was a sort of three-prong- 
ed harpoon, such as was used in those days by 
the fishermen of the Mediterranean. It was 
from this circumstance, probably, that it was 
chosen as the badge of authority for the god of 
the sea. 

Alexander took the helm, and steered the 
galley with his own hands toward the Asiatic 
shore. Just before he reached the land, he took 
his place upon the prow, and threw a javelin at 
the shore as he approached it, a symbol of the 
spirit of defiance and hostility with which he 
advanced to the frontiers of the eastern world. 
He was also the first to land. After disembark- 
ing his company, he offered sacrifices to the 
gods, and then proceeded to visit the places 
which had been the scenes of the events which 
Homer had described. 

Homer had written five hundred years before 
the time of Alexander, and there is some doubt 
whether the ruins and the remains of cities 
which our hero found there were really the 
scenes of the narratives which had interested 
him so deeply. He, however, at any rate, be- 
lieved them to be so, and he was filled with en- 
thusiasm and pride as he wandered among them. 
He seems to have been most interested in the 



BC.334.] The Hellespont. 101 

Alexander proceeds on his march. Lampsacus 

character of Achilles, and he said that he en- 
vied him his happy lot in having such a friend 
as Patroclus to help him perform his exploits, 
and such a poet as Homer to celebrate them. 

After completing his visit upon the plain ol 
Troy, Alexander moved toward the northeast 
with the few men who had accompanied him in 
his single galley. In the mean time Parmenio 
had crossed safely, with the main body of the 
army, from Sestos to Abydos. Alexander over- 
took them on their march, not far from the place 
of their landing. To the northward of this place, 
on the left of the line of march which Alexander 
was taking, was the city of Lampsacus. 

Now a large portion of Asia Minor, although 
for the most part under the dominion of Persia, 
had been in a great measure settled by Greeks, 
and, in previous wars between the two nations, 
the various cities had been in possession, some- 
times of one power and sometimes of the other. 
In these contests the city of Lampsacus had 
incurred the high displeasure of the Greeks by 
rebelling, as they said, on one occasion, against 
them. Alexander determined to destroy it as 
he passed. The inhabitants were aware of this 
intention, and sent an embassador to Alexander 
to implore his mercy. When the embassador 



102 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334. 

Alexander spares Lampsacus. Arrival at the Granicus. 

approached, Alexander, knowing his erranl, ut- 
tered a declaration in which he bound himself 
by a solemn oath not to grant the request he 
was about to make. ^'I have come," said the 
embassador, 'Ho implore you to destroy Lamp- 
sacus." Alexander, pleased with the readiness 
of the embassador in giving his language such 
a sudden turn, and perhaps influenced by his 
oath, spared the city. 

He was now fairly in Asia. The Persian 
forces were gathering to attack him, but so un- 
expected and sudden had been his invasion that 
they were not prepared to meet him at his ar- 
rival, and he advanced without opposition till 
lie reached the banks of the little river Granicus. 



B.C.334.] Campaign in Asia Minor. 103 

Alexander hemmed in by Mount Ida and the Graaicus. 



Chapter V. 

Campaign in Asia Minor. 

\ LTHOUGH Alexander had landed safely 
-^"^ on the Asiatic shore, the way was not yet 
fairly open for him to advance into the interior 
of the country. He was upon a sort of plain, 
which was separated from the territory beyond 
by natural barriers. On the south was the 
range of lofty land called Mount Ida. From 
the northeastern slopes of this mountain there 
descended a stream which flowed north into the 
sea, thus hemming Alexander's army in. He 
must either scale the mountain or cross the 
river before he could penetrate into the in- 
terior. 

He thought it would be easiest to cross the 
river. It is very difficult to get a large body 
of horsemen and of heavy-armed soldiers, with 
all their attendants and baggage, over high ele- 
vations of land. This was the reason why the 
army turned to the northward after landing 
upon the Asiatic shore. Alexander thought 
the Granicus less of an obsiacle than Moimt 



104 Alexander the Great. [B.G. 384 

The Granicus. Prodromi 




The Granicus. 



Ida. It was not a large stream, and was easi 
ly fordable. 

It was the custom in those days, as it is now 
when armies are marching, to send forward 
small bodies of men in every direction to ex- 
plore the roads, remove obstacles, and discover 
sources of danger. These men are called, in 
modern times, scouts; in Alexander's day, and 
in the Greek language, they were called pro 
dromi, which means forerunners. It is the 
duty of these pioneers to send messengers back 



B.C. 334.] Campaign in Asia Minor. 105 

Alexander stopped at the Granicus. Council called 

continually to the main body of the army, in- 
forming the officers of every thing important 
which comes under their observation. 

In this case, when the army was gradually 
drawing near to the river, the prodromi came 
in with the news that they had been to the riv^ 
er, and found the whole opposite shore, at the 
place of crossing, lined with Persian troops, col- 
lected there to dispute the passage. The army 
continued their advance, while Alexander called 
the leading generals around him, to consider 
what was to be done. 

Parmenio recommended that they should not 
attempt to pass the river immediately. The 
Persian army consisted chiefly of cavalry. 
Now cavalry, though very terrible as an enemy 
on the field of battle by day, are peculiarly ex- 
posed and defenseless in an encampment by 
night. The horses are scattered, feeding or at 
rest. The arms of the men are light, and they 
are not accustomed to fighting on foot ; and on 
a sudden incursion of an enemy at midnight 
into their camp, their horses and their horse- 
manship are alike useless, and they fall an easy 
prey to resolute invaders. Parmenio thought, 
therefore, that the Persians would not dare to 
remain and encamp many days in the vicinity 



106 Alexander the Great. [B.C^. 334 

Alexander resolves to advance. His inotiV'=sj 

of Alexander's army, and that, accordingly, if 
they waited a little, the enemy would retreat, 
and Alexander could then cross the river with* 
out incurring the danger of a battle. 

But Alexander was unwilling to adopt any 
such policy. He felt confident that his army 
was courageous and strong enough to march on, 
directly through the river, ascend the bank upon 
the other side, and force their way through all 
the opposition which the Persians could make. 
He knew, too, that if this were done it would 
create a strong sensation throughout the whole 
country, impressing every one with a sense of 
the energy and power of the army which he 
was conducting, and would thus tend to intimi- 
date the enemy, and facilitate all future opera- 
tions. But this was not all ; he had a more 
powerful motive still for wishing to march right 
on, across the river, and ^orce his way through 
the vast bodies of cavalry on the opposite shore, 
and this was the pleasure of performing the ex« 
ploit. 

Accordingly, as the army advanced to the 
banks, they maneuvered to form in order of bat- 
tle, and prepared to continue their march as if 
there were no obstacle to oppose them. The 
general order of battle of the Macedonian army 



B.C. 334] Campaign in Asia Minor. 107 

The Macedonian phalanx. Its organizatiou 

was this. There was a certain body of troops, 
armed and organized in a peculiar manner, call- 
ed the Phalanx. This body was placed in the 
center. The men composing it were very heav- 
ily armed. They had shields upon the left arm^ 
and they carried spears sixteen feet long, and 
pointed with iron, which they held firmly in 
their two hands, with the points projecting far 
before them. The men were arranged in lines, 
one behind the other, and all facing the enemy 
— sixteen lines, and a thousand in each line, or, 
as it is expressed in military phrase, a thousand 
in rank and sixteen in file, so that the phalanx 
contained sixteen thousand men. 

The spears were so long that when the men 
stood in close order, the rear ranks being brought 
up near to those before them, the points of the 
spears of eight or ten of the ranks projected in 
front, forming a bristling wall of points of steel, 
each one of which was held in its place by the 
strong arms of an athletic and well-trained sol- 
dier. ' This wall no force which could in those 
days be brought against it could penetrate. 
Men, horses, elephants, every thing that at- 
tempted to rush upon it, rushed only to their own 
destruction. Every spear, feeling the impulse 
of the vigorous arms which held it, seemed to 



108 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334* 

Formidable character of the phalanx. Is irresistible. 

be alive, and darted into its enemy, when an en- 
emy was at hand, as if it felt itself the fierce 
hostility which directed it. If the enemy re- 
mained at a distance, and threw javelins or darts 
at the phalanx, they fell harmless, stopped by 
the shields which the soldiers wore upon the 
left arm, and which were held in such a man- 
ner as to form a system of scales, which cover- 
ed and protected the whole mass, and made the 
men almost invulnerable. The phalanx was 
thus, when only defending itself and in a state 
of rest, an army and a fortification all in one, 
and it was almost impregnable. But when it 
took an aggressive form, put itself in motion, 
and advanced to an attack, it was infinitely 
more formidable. It became then a terrible 
monster, covered with scales of brass, from be- 
neath which there projected forward ten thou- 
sand living, darting points of iron. It advanc- 
ed deliberately and calmly, but with a prodig- 
ious momentum and force. There was nothing 
human in its appearance at all. It was a huge 
animal, ferocious, dogged, stubborn, insensible 
to pain, knowing no fear, and bearing down with 
resistless and merciless destruction upon every 
thing that came in its way. The phalanx was 
the center and soul of Alexander's armv. Pow- 



B.C.3y4.] Campaign in Asia Minor. 109 

Divisions of the phalanx. Its position in battle. 



erful and impregnable as it was, however, in 
ancient days, it would be helpless and defense- 
less on a modern battle-field. Solid balls of 
iron, flying through the air with a velocity 
which makes them invisible, would tear their 
way through the pikes and the shields, and the 
bodies of the men who bore them, without eveiv 
feeling the obstruction. 

The phalanx was subdivided into brigades, 
regiments, and battalions, and regularly officer- 
ed. In marching, it was separated into these 
its constituent parts, and sometimes in battle it 
acted in divisions. It was stationed in the cen- 
ter of the army on the field, and on the two 
sides of it were bodies of cavalry and foot sol- 
diers, more lightly armed than the soldiers of 
the phalanx, who could accordingly move with 
more alertness and speed, and carry their ac- 
tion readily wherever it might be called for. 
Those troops on the sides were called the wings. 
Alexander himself was accustomed to command 
one wing and Parmenio the other, while the 
phalanx crept along slowly but terribly between. 

The army, thus arranged and organized, ad- 
vanced to the river. It was a broad and shal- 
low stream. The Persians had assembled in 
vast numbers on the opposite shore. Some his- 



110 Alexander the Great. [B.C 334. 

Battle of the Granicus. Defeat of the Persians 

torians say there were one hundred thousand 
men, others say two hundred thousand, and oth- 
ers six hundred thousand. However this may 
be, there is no doubt their numbers were vastly 
superior to those of Alexander's army, which it 
will be recollected was less than forty thousand. 
There was a narrow plain on the opposite side 
of the river, next to the shore, and a range of 
hills beyond. The Persian cavalry covered the 
plain, and were ready to dash upon the Mace- 
donian troops the moment they should emerge 
from the water and attempt to ascend the bank. 

The army, led by Alexander, descended into 
the stream, and moved on through the water. 
They encountered the onset of their enemies on 
the opposite shore. A terrible and a protracted 
struggle ensued, but the coolness, courage, and 
strength of Alexander's army carried the day. 
The Persians were driven back, the Greeks ef- 
fected their landing, reorganized and formed on 
the shore, and the Persians, finding that all was 
lost, fled in all directions. 

Alexander himself took a conspicuous and a 
very active part in the contest. He was easily 
recognized on the field of battle by his dress, and 
by a white plume which he wore in his helmet 
He exposed himself to the most imminent dan* 



B.C. 334.] Campaign in Asia Minor. Ill 

Alexander's prowess. His imminent danger, 

ger. At one time, when desperately engaged 
with a troop of horse, which had galloped down 
upon him, a Persian horseman aimed a blow at 
his head with a sword. Alexander saved his 
head from the blow, but it took off his plume 
and a part of his helmet. Alexander immedi- 
ately thrust his antagonist through the body. 
At the same moment, another horseman, on an- 
other side, had his sword raised, and would have 
killed Alexander before he could have turned to 
defend himseJf, had no help intervened ; but 
just at this instant a third combatant, one of 
Alexander's friends, seeing the danger, brought 
down so terrible a blow upon the shoulder of 
this second assailant as to separate his arm from 
his body. 

Such are the stories that are told. They 
may have been literally and fully true, or they 
may have been exaggerations of circumstances 
somewhat resembling them which really occur- 
red, or they may have been fictitious altogeth- 
er. Great generals, like other great men, have 
often the credit of many exploits which they 
never perform. It is the special business of 
poets and historians to magnify and embellish 
the actions of the great, and this art was un- 
derstood as well in ancient days as it is now, 
26 



112 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 



Results of the battle. Spoils sent to Greece. 

We must remember, too, in reading the ac- 
counts of these transactions, that it is only the 
Greek side of the story that we hear. The 
Persian narratives have not come down to us. 

At any rate, the Persian army was defeated, 
and that, too, without the assistance of the phal- 
anx. The horsemen and the light troops were 
alone engaged. The phalanx could not be form- 
ed, nor could it act in such a position. The 
men, on emerging from the water, had to climb 
up the banks, and rush on to the attack of an 
enemy consisting of squadrons of horse ready to 
dash at once upon them. 

The Persian army was defeated and driven 
away. Alexander did not pursue them. He 
felt that he had struck a very heavy blow. The 
news of this defeat of the Persians would go 
with the speed of the wind all over Asia Minor, 
and operate most powerfully in his favor. He 
sent home to Greece an account of the victory, 
and with the account he forwarded three hun« 
dred suits of armor, taken from the Persian 
horsemen killed on the field. These suits of ar* 
mor were to be hung up in the Parthenon, a 
great temple at Athens ; the most conspicuous 
position for them, perhaps, which all Europe- 
oould afford. 



B.C.334.] Campaign in Asia Minor. 113 

Memnon overruled. Alexander visits the wounded. 

The name of the Persian general who com- 
manded at the battle of the Gr anions was Mem- 
non. He had been opposed to the plan of haz- 
arding a battle. Alexander had come to Asia 
with no provisions and no money. He had re- 
lied on being able to sustain his army by his 
victories. Memnon, therefore, strongly urged 
that the Persians should retreat slowly, carry- 
ing off all the valuable property, and destroying 
all that could not be removed, taking especial 
care to leave no provisions behind them. In 
this way he thought that the army of Alexan- 
der would be reduced by privation and want, 
and would, in the end, fall an easy prey. His 
opinion was, however, overruled by the views 
of the other commanders, and the battle of the 
Granicus was the consequence. 

Alexander encamped to refresh his army and 
to take care of the wounded. He went to see 
the wounded men one by one, inquired into the 
circumstances of each case, and listened to each 
one who was able to talk, while he. gave an ac- 
count of his adventures in the battle, and the 
manner in which he received his wound. To 
be able thus to tell their story to their general, 
and to see him listening to it with interest and 
pleasure, filled their hearts with pride and joy ; 
H 



114 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 



Alexander resumes his march. The couutry surrendera 

and the whole army was inspired with the high-' 
est spirit of enthusia^im, and with eager desires 
to have another opportunity occur in which they 
could encounter danger and death in the service 
of such a leader. It is in such traits as these 
that the true greatness of the soul of Alexander 
shines. It must be remembered that all this 
time he was but little more than twenty-one 
He was but just of age. 

From his encampment on the Granicus Alex- 
ander turned to the southward, and moved along 
on the eastern shores of the ^gean Sea. The 
country generally surrendered to him without 
opposition. In fact, it was hardly Persian ter- 
ritory at all. The inhabitants were mainly of 
Greek extraction, and had been sometimes 
under Greek and sometimes under Persian rule. 
The conquest of the country resulted simply in 
a change of the executive officer of each prov- 
ince. Alexander took special pains to lead the 
people to feel that they had nothing to fear from 
him. He would not allow the soldiers to do 
any injury. He protected all private property 
He took possession only of the citadels, and of 
such governmental property as he found there, 
and he continued the same taxes, the same 
laws, and the same tribunals as had existed be- 



B.C. 334.] CAMPi^iGN IN Asia Minor. 115 

Incidents. Alexander's generosity. 

fore his invasion. The cities and the provinces 
accordingly surrendered to him as he passed 
along, and in a very short time all the western 
part of Asia Minor submitted peacefully to his 
sway. 

The narrative of this progress, as given by 
the ancient historians, is diversified by a great 
\''ariety of adventures and incidents, which give 
great interest to the story, and strikingly illus- 
trate the character of Alexander and the spirit 
of the times. In some places there would be p 
contest between the Greek and the Persian 
parties before Alexander's arrival. At Ephe- 
sus the animosity had been so great that a sort 
of civil war had broken out. The Greek party 
had gained the ascendency, and were threaten- 
ing a general massacre of the Persian inhab- 
itants. Alexander promptly interposed to pro- 
tect them, though they were his enemies. The 
intelligence of this act of forbearance and gen- 
erosity spread all over the land, and added great- 
ly to the influence of Alexander's name, and to 
the estimation in which he was held. 

It was the custom in those days for the mass 
of the common soldiers to be greatly influenced 
by what they called omens^ that is, signs and 
tokens which they observed in the flight or the 



116 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 

Omens. The eagle on the mast. Interpretations 

actions of birds, and other similar appearances. 
In one case, the fleet, which had come along the 
sea, accompanying the march of the army on 
land, was pent up in a harbor by a stronger 
Persian fleet outside. One of the vessels of the 
Macedonian fleet was aground. An eagle light- 
ed upon the mast, and stood perched there for 
a long time, looking toward the sea. Parme- 
nio said that, as the eagle looked toward the 
sea, it indicated that victory lay in that quar- 
ter, and he recommended that they should arm 
their ships and push boldly out to attack the 
Persians. But Alexander maintained that, as 
the eagle alighted on a ship which was aground, 
it indicated that they were to look for their suc- 
cess on the shore. The omens could thus al- 
most always be interpreted any way, and sa- 
gacious generals only sought in them the means 
of confirming the courage and confidence of 
their soldiers, in respect to the plans which they 
adopted under the influence of other considera- 
tions altogether. Alexander knew very well 
that he was not a sailor, and had no desire to 
embark in contests from which, however they 
might end, he would himself personally obtain 
no glory. 

When the winter came on, Alexander and 



B.C. 334.] Campaign in Asia Minor. 117 

Approach of winter. The newly married permitted to go home. 

his army were about three or four hundred miles 
from home ; and, as he did not intend to ad- 
vance much farther until the spring should open, 
he announced to the army that all those persons, 
both officers and soldiers who had been married 
within the year, mignt go home if they chose, 
and spend the winter with their brides, and 
return to the army in the spring. No doubt 
this was an admirable stroke of policy ; for, as 
the number could not be large, their absence 
could not materially weaken his force, and they 
would, of course, fill all Greece with tales of 
Alexander's energy and courage, and of the 
nobleness and generosity of his character. It 
was the most effectual way possible of dissemi- 
nating through Europe the most brilliant ac- 
counts of what he had already done. 

Besides, it must have awakened a new bond 
of sympathy and fellow-feeling between himself 
and his soldiers, and greatly increased the at- 
tachment to him felt both by those who went 
and those who remained. And though Alex- 
ander must have been aware of all these advant- 
ages of the act, still no one could have thought of 
or adopted such a plan unless he was accustomed 
to consider and regard, in his dealings with oth- 
ers, the feelings and affections of the heart, and 



118 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 334 

A detachment of bridegrooms. Tauros 

to cherish a warm sympathy for them. The 
bridegroom soldiers, full of exultation and pleas- 
ure, set forth on their return to Greece, in a de- 
tachment under the charge of three generals, 
themselves bridegrooms too. 

Alexander, however, had no idea of remain- 
ing idle during the winter. He marched on 
from province to province, and from city to city, 
meeting with every variety of adventures. He 
went first along the southern coast, until at 
length he came to a place where a mountain 
chain, called Taurus, comes down to the sea- 
coast, where it terminates abruptly in cliffs and 
precipices, leaving only a narrow beach between 
them and the water below. This beach was 
sometimes covered and sometimes bare. It is 
true, there is very little tide in the Mediterra- 
nean, but the level of the water along the shores 
is altered considerably by the long-continued 
pressure exerted in one direction or another by 
winds and storms. The water was up when 
Alexander reached this pass ; still he determin- 
ed to march his army through it. There wag 
another way, back among the mountains, but 
Alexander seemed disposed to gratify the love 
of adventure which his army felt, by introducing 
them to a novel scene of danger. They accord 



B.C.334.1 Campaign in Asia Minor. 119 

Passage through the sea. Hardships. The Meander 

ingly defiled along under these cliffs, marching, 
as they say, sometimes up to the waist in wa- 
ter, the swell rolling in upon them aU the time 
from the offing. 

Having at length succeeded in passing safely 
round this frowning buttress of the mountains, 
Alexander turned northward, and advanced into 
the very heart of Asia Minor. In doing this he 
had to pass over the range which he had come 
round before; and, ad it was winter, his army 
were, for a time, enveloped in snows and storms 
among the wild and frightful defiles. They had 
here, in addition to the dangers and hardships 
of the way and of the season, to encounter the 
hostility of their foes, as the tribes who inhab- 
ited these mountains assembled to dispute the 
passage. Alexander was victorious, and reach- 
ed a valley through which there flows a river 
which has handed down its name to the English 
language and literature. This river was the 
Meander. Its beautiful windings through ver- 
dant and fertile valleys were so renowned, that 
every stream which imitates its example is said 
to meander to the present day. 

During all this time Parmenio had remained 
in the western part of Asia Minor with a con- 
siderable body of the army. As the spring ap. 



120 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333. 

Gordium. Story of the Gordian knot 

preached, Alexander sent him orders to go tc 
Gordium, whither he was himself proceeding, 
and meet him there. He also directed that the 
detachment which had gone home should, on 
recrossing the Hellespont on their return, pro- 
ceed eastward to Gordium, thus making that 
city the general rendezvous for the commence- 
ment of his next campaign. 

One reason why Alexander desired to go to 
Gordium was that he wished to untie the fa- 
mous Gordian knot. The story of the Gordian 
knot was this. Gordius was a sort of mountain 
farmer. One day he was plowing, and an eagle 
came down and alighted upon his yoke, and re- 
mained there until he had finished his plowing. 
This was an omen, but what was the significa- 
tion of it ? Gordius did not know, and he ac- 
cordingly went to a neighboring town in order 
to consult the prophets and soothsayers. On 
his way he met a damsel, who, like Rebecca in 
the days of Abraham, was going forth to draw 
water. Gordius fell into conversation with her, 
and related to her the occurrence which had in- 
terested him so strongly. The maiden advised 
him to go back and offer a sacrifice to Jupiter. 
Finally, she consented to go back with him and 
aid him. The affair ended in her becoming his 



B.C.333.] Campaign in Asia Minor. 121 

Midas. Gordiua made king 

wife, and they lived together in peace for many 
years upon their farm. 

They had a son named Midas. The father 
and mother were accustomed to go out some- 
times in their cart or wagon, drawn by the oxen, 
Midas driving. One day they were going into 
the town in this way, at a time when it hap- 
pened that there was an assembly convened, 
which was in a state of great perplexity on ac- 
count of the civil dissensions and contests which 
prevailed in the country. They had just in- 
quired of an oracle what they should do. The 
oracle said that " a cart would bring them a 
king, who would terminate their eternal broils." 
Just then Midas came up, driving the cart in 
which his father and mother were seated. The 
assembly thought at once that this must be the 
cart meant by the oracle, and they made Gor- 
dius king by acclamation. They took the cart 
and the yoke to preserve as sacred relics, con- 
secrating them to Jupiter ; and Gordius tied 
the yoke to the pole of the cart by a thong of 
leather, making a knot so close and complicated 
that nobody could untie it again. It was called 
the Gordian knot. The oracle afterward said 
that whoever should untie this knot should be- 



122 Alexander the (5! re at. [li.C. ^33 

Alexander cuts the knot He resumes his march 

come monarch of all Asia. Thus far, nobodv 
had succeeded. 

Alexander felt a great desire to see this knot 
and try what he could do. He went, accordingly , 
into the temple where the sacred cart had been 
deposited, and, after looking at the knot, and 
satisfying himself that the task of untying it 
was hopeless, he cut it to pieces with his sword. 
How far the circumstances of this whole story 
are true, and how far fictitious, no one can tell ; 
the story itself, however, as thus related, has 
come down from generation to generation, in 
every country of Europe, for two thousand years, 
and any extrication of one's self from a difficulty 
by violent means has been called cutting the 
Gordian knot to the present day. 

At length the whole army was assembled, 
and the king recommenced his progress. He 
went on successfully for some weeks, moving in 
a southeasterly direction, and bringing the whole 
country under his dominion, until, at length, 
when he reached Tarsus, an event occurred 
which nearly terminated his career. There 
were some circumstances which caused him to 
press forward with the utmost effort in approach- 
ing Tarsus, and, as the day was warm, he got 
very much overcome with heat and fatigue. In 



B.C. 333.J Campaign in Asia Minor. 12G 

Alexander's bath in the Cydnus. His sickness 

this state, he went and plunged suddenly inte 
the River Cydnus to bathe. 

Now the Cydnus is a small stream, flowing 
by Tarsus, and it comes down from Mount Tau- 
rus at a short distance back from the city. 
Such streams are always very cold. Alexander 
was immediately seized with a very violent chill, 
and was taken out of the water shivering ex- 
cessively, and, at length, fainted away. They 
thought he was dying. They bore him to his 
tent, and, as tidings of their leader's danger 
spread through the camp, the whole army, offi- 
cers and soldiers, were thrown into the greatest 
r*>onsternation and grief. 

A violent and protracted fever came on. In 
the course of it, an incident occurred which 
strikingly illustrates the boldness and original- 
ity of Alexander's character. The name of his 
physician was Philip. Philip had been pre- 
paring a particular medicine for him, which, it 
seems, required some days to make ready. Just 
before it was presented, Alexander received a 
letter from Parmenio, informing him that he 
had good reason to believe that Philip had been 
bribed by the Persians to murder him, during 
his sickness, by administering poison in the 
name of medicine. He wrote, he said, to put 



126 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 



Alexander's physician Philip. Suspicions of poison. 

him on his guard against any medicine which 
Philip might offer him. 

Alexander put the letter under his pillow, and 
communicated its contents to no one. At length, 
when the medicine was ready, Philip brought it 
in. Alexander took the cup containing it with 
one hand, and with the other he handed Philip 
the communication which he had received from 
Parmenio, saying, " Read that letter." As soon 
as Philip had finished reading it, and was ready 
to look up, Alexander drank off the draught in 
full, and laid down the cup with an air of per- 
fect confidence that he had nothing to fear. 

Some persons think that Alexander watched 
the countenance of his physician while he was 
reading the letter, and that he was led to take 
the medicine by his confidence in his power to 
determine the guilt or the innocence of a person 
thus accused by his looks. Others suppose that 
the act was an expression of his implicit faith 
in the integrity and fidelity of his servant, and 
that he intended it as testimony, given in a very 
pointed and decisive, and, at the same time, del- 
icate manner, that he was not suspicious of his 
friends, or easily led to distrust their faithful- 
ness. Philip was, at any rate, extremely grat- 
ified at the procedure, and Alexander recovered. 



B.C. 333.] Campaign in Asia Minor. 127 

Asia subdued. The plain of Issus 

Alexander had now traversed the whole ex- 
tent of Asia Minor, and had subdued the entire 
country to his sway. He was now advancing 
to another district, that of Syria and Palestine, 
which lies on the eastern shores of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea. To enter this new territory, he had 
to pass over a narrow plain which lay between 
the mountains and the sea, at a place called Is- 
sus. Here he was met by the main body of the 
Persian army, and the great battle of Issus was 
fought. This battle will be the subject of the 
next chapter. 
27 



128 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 

Darius's opinion of Alexander. He prepares to meet him 



Chapter VI. 
Defeat of Darius. 

THUS far Alexander had had only the lieu- 
tenants and generals of the Persian mon- 
arch to contend with. Darius had at first looked 
upon the invasion of his vast dominions by such 
a mere boy, as he called him, and by so small 
an army, with contempt. He sent word to his 
generals in Asia Minor to seize the young fool, 
and send him to Persia bound hand and foot. 
By the time, however, that Alexander had pos- 
sessed himself of all Asia Minor, Darius began 
to find that, though young, he was no fool, and 
that it was not likely to be very easy to seize 
him. 

Accordingly, Darius collected an immense 
army himself, and advanced to meet the Mace- 
donians in person. Nothing could exceed the 
pomp and magnificence of his preparations. 
There were immense numbers of troops, and 
they were of all nations. There were even a 
great many Greeks among his forces, many of 
them enlisted from the Greeks of Asia Minor. 
There were some from Greece itself — mercena- 



B.C. 333.] Defeat of Darius. 129 

Greek mercenaries. Counsel of Charidemus 

ries, as they were called ; that is, soldiers who 
fought for pay, and who were willing to enter 
inf.o any service which would pay them best. 

There were even some Greek officers and 
counselors in the family and court of Darius. 
One of them, named Charidemus, offended the 
king very much by the free opinion which he 
expressed of the uselessness of all his pomp and 
parade in preparing for an encounter with such 
an enemy as Alexander. " Perhaps," said Char- 
idemus, " you may not be pleased with my 
speaking to you plainly, but if I do not do it 
now, it will be too late hereafter. This great 
parade and pomp, and this enormous multitude 
of men, might be formidable to your Asiatic 
neighbors ; but such sort of preparation will be 
of little avail against Alexander and his Greeks. 
Your army is resplendent with purple and gold. 
No one who had not seen it could conceive of 
its magnificence ; but it will not be of any avail 
against the terrible energy of the Greeks. Their 
minds are bent on something very different from 
idle show. They are intent on securing the sub- 
stantial excellence of their weapons, and on ac- 
quiring the discipline and the hardihood essen- 
tial for the most efficient use of them. They 
will despise all your parade of purple and gold. 

I 



130 Alexander the Gtreat. [B.C. 333. 

Darius's displeasure at Charidemus. He condemns him to death 

They will not even value it as plunder. They 
glory in their ability to dispense with all the 
luxuries and conveniences of life. They live 
upon the coarsest food. At night they sleep 
upon the bare ground. By day they are always 
on the march. They brave hunger, cold^ and 
every species of exposure with pride and pleas- 
are, having the greatest contempt for any thing 
like softness and effeminacy of character. All 
this pomp and pageantry, with inefficient weap- 
ons, and inefficient men to wield them, will be 
of no avail against their invincible courage and 
energy ; and the best disposition that you can 
make of all your gold, and silver, and other 
treasures, is to send it away and procure good 
soldiers with it, if indeed gold and silver will 
procure them." 

The Greeks were habituated to energetio 
speaking as well as acting, but Charidemus did 
not sufficiently consider that the Persians were 
not accustomed to hear such plain language as 
this. Darius was very much displeased. In 
his anger he condemned him to death. ^' Very 
well," said Charidemus, " I can die. But my 
avenger is at hand. My advice is good, and 
Alexander will soon punish you for not regard- 
ing it." 



B.C.333.] Defeat of Darius. 13J 



Magnificence of Daiius's army. Worship of the sun 

Very gorgeous descriptions are given of the 
pomp and magnificence of the army of Darius, 
as he commenced his march from the Euphra- 
tes to the Mediterranean. The Persians wor- 
ship the sun and fire. Over the king's tent 
there was an image of the sun in crystal, and 
supported in such a manner as to be in the view 
of the whole army. They had also silver altars, 
on which they kept constantly burning what 
they called the sacred fire. These altars were 
borne by persons appointed for the purpose, who 
were clothed in magnificent costumes. Then 
came a long procession of priests and magi, who 
were dressed also in very splendid robes. They 
performed the services of public w^orship. Fol- 
lowing them came a chariot consecrated to the 
sun. It was drawn by white horses, and was 
followed by a single white horse of large size 
and noble form, which was a sacred animal, be- 
ing called the horse of the sun. The equerries, 
that is, the attendants who had charge of this 
horse, were also all dressed in white, and each 
carried a golden rod in his hand. 

There were bodies of troops distinguished 
from the rest, and occupying positions of high 
honor, but these were selected and advanced 
above the others, not on account of their cour- 



132 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 

The Kinsmen. The Immortals. Appearance of Dariua 

age, or strength, or superior martial efficiency, 
but from considerations connected with their 
birth, and rank, and other aristocratic qualities. 
There was one body called the Kinsmen, who 
were the relatives of the king, or, at least, so con- 
sidered, though, as there were fifteen thousand 
of them, it would seem that the relationship 
could not have been, in all cases, very near. 
They were dressed with great magnificence, 
and prided themselves on their rank, their 
wealth, and the splendor of their armor. There 
was also a corps called the Immortals. They 
were ten thousand in number. They wore a 
dress of gold tissue, which glittered with span 
gles and precious stones. 

These bodies of men, thus dressed, made an 
appearance more like that of a civic procession, 
on an occasion of ceremony and rejoicing, than 
like the march of an army. The appearance of 
the king in his chariot was still more like an 
exhibition of pomp and parade. The carriage 
was very large, elaborately carved and gilded, 
and ornamented with statues and sculptures. 
Here the king sat on a very elevated seat, in 
sight of all. He was clothed in a vest of pur- 
ple, striped with silver, and over his vest he 
wore a robe glittering with gold and precious 



B.C.333.] Defeat of Darius 133 

Costly apparel of Darius. His family 

stones. Around his waist was a golden girdle, 
from which was suspended his cimeter — a spe- 
cies of sword — ^the scabbard of which was re- 
splendent with gems. He wore a tiara upon 
his head of very costly and elegant workman- 
ship, and enriched, like the rest of his dress, 
with brilliant ornaments. The guards who 
preceded and followed him had pikes of silver, 
mounted and tipped with gold. 

It is very extraordinary that King Darius 
took his wife and all his family with him. and 
a large portion of his treasures, on this expedi- 
tion against Alexander. His mother, whose 
name was Sysigambis, was in his family, and 
she and his wife came, each in her own chariot, 
immediately after the king. Then there were 
fifteen carriages filled with the children and 
their attendants, and three or four hundred la- 
dies of the court, all dressed like queens. After 
the family there came a train of many hun- 
dreds of camels and mules, carrying the royal 
treasures. 

It was in this style that Darius set out upon 
his expedition, and he advanced by a slow prog- 
ress toward the westward, until at length he 
approached the shores of the Mediterranean 
Sea He left his treasures in the city of Da- 



134 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 



Darius ad\-ances to meet Alexander. 



Map of the plain of Issua 



mascus, where they were deposited under the 
charge of a sufBcient force to protect them, as 
he supposed. He then advanced to meet Alex 
ander, going himself from Syria toward Asia 
Minor just at the time that Alexander was 
coming from Asia Minor into Syria. 




Plain of Issus 



It will be observed by looking upon the map, 



B.C. 333] Defeat of Darids. 135 

Mount Taurus. Route of Dariua. 

that the chain of mountains called Mount Tau- 
rus extends down near to the coast, at the 
northeastern corner of the Mediterranean. 
Among these mountains there are various tracts 
of open country, through which an army may 
march to and fro, between Syria and Asia Mi- 
nor. Now it happened that Darius, in going 
toward the west, took a more inland route than 
Alexander, who, on coming eastward, kept near- 
er to the sea. Alexander did not know that 
Darius was so near ; and as for Darius, he was 
confident that Alexander was retreating before 
him ; for, as the Macedonian army was so small, 
and his own forces constituted such an innu- 
merable host, the idea that Alexander would 
remain to brave a battle was, in his opinion, en- 
tirely out of the question. He had, therefore, 
no doubt that Alexander was retreating. It is, 
of course, always difficult for two armies, fifty 
miles apart, to obtain correct ideas of each oth- 
er's movements. All the ordinary intercommu- 
nications of the country are of course stopped, 
and each general has his scouts out, with or- 
ders to intercept all travelers, and to interrupt 
the communication of intelligence by every 
means in their power. 

In consequence of these and other circum- 



136 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333. 

Situation of Issus. The armies pass each ether 

stances of a similar nature, it happened that 
Alexander and Darius actually passed each oth- 
er, without either of them being aware of it, 
Alexander advanced into Syria by the plains of 
Issus, marked a upon the map, and a narrow 
pass beyond, called the Gates of Syria, while 
Darius went farther to the north, and arrived 
at Issus after Alexander had left it. Here each 
army learned to their astonishment that their 
enemy was in their rear. Alexander could not 
credit this report when he first heard it. He 
dispatched a galley with thirty oars along the 
shore, up the Gulf of Issus, to ascertain the 
truth. The galley soon came back and report- 
ed that, beyond the Gates of Syria, they saw 
the whole country, which was nearly level land, 
though gently rising from the sea, covered with 
the vast encampments of the Persian army. 

The king then called his generals and coun- 
selors together, informed them of the facts, and 
made known to them his determination to re- 
turn immediately through the Gates of Syria 
and attack the Persian army. The officers re- 
ceived the intelligence with enthusiastic ex- 
pressions of joy. 

It was now near the evening. Alexander 
sent forward a strong reconnoitering party, or- 



B.C. 333.] Defeat of Darius. 137 

Reconnoitering parties. A cainp at night 

dering them to proceed cautiously, to ascend 
eminences and look far before them, to guard 
carefully against surprise, and to send back 
word immediately if they came upon any traces 
of the enemy. At the present day the opera- 
tions of such a reconnoitering party are very 
much aided by the use of spy-glasses, which are 
made now with great care expressly for milita- 
ry purposes. The instrument, however, was 
not known in Alexander's day. 

When the evening came on, Alexander fol- 
lowed the reconnoitering party with the main 
body of the army. At midnight they reached 
the defile. When they were secure in the pos- 
session of it, they halted. Strong watches were 
stationed on all the surrounding heights to guard 
against any possible surprise. Alexander him- 
self ascended one of the eminences, from whence 
he could look down upon the great plain beyond, 
which v/as dimly illuminated in every part by 
the smouldering fires of the Persian encamp- 
ment. An encampment at night is a spectacle 
which is always grand, and often sublime. It 
must have appeared sublime to Alexander in 
the highest degree, on this occasion. To stand 
stealthily among these dark and somber mount* 
ains, with the defiles and passes below fijled 



138 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 

The night before the battle. Sublime and solemn scenes. 

with the columns of his small but undaunted 
army, and to look onward, a few miles beyond, 
and see the countless fires of the vast hosts 
which had got between him and all hope of re- 
treat to his native land; to feel, as he must 
have done, that his fate, and that of all who 
were with him, depended upon the events of 
the day that was soon to dawn — to see and feel 
these things must have made this night one of 
the most exciting and solemn scenes in the con- 
queror's life. He had a soul to enjoy its ex- 
citement and sublimity. He gloried in it ; and, 
as if he wished to add to the solemnity of the 
scene, he caused an altar to be erected, and of- 
fered a sacrifice, by torch-light, to the deities on 
whose aid his soldiers imagined themselves most 
dependent for success on the morrow. Of course 
a place was selected where the lights of the 
torches would not attract the attention of the 
enemy, and sentinels were stationed at every 
advantageous point to watch the Persian camp 
for the slightest indications of movement or 
alarm. 

In the morning, at break of day, Alexander 
commenced his march down to the plain. In 
the evening, at sunset, all the valleys and defiles 
among the mountains around the plain of Issus 



B.C. 333.] Defeat of Darius. 139 

Defeat of the Persians. Flight of Dariua 

were thronged with vast masses of the Persian 
army, broken, disordered, and in confusion, all 
pressing forward to escape from the victorious 
Macedonians. They crowded all the roads, they 
choked up the mountain passes, they trampled 
upon one another, they fell, exhausted with fa- 
tigue and mental agitation. Darius was among 
them, though his flight had been so sudden that 
he had left his mother, and his wife, and all his 
family behind. He pressed on in his chariot as 
far as the road allowed his chariot to go, and 
then, leaving every thing behind, he mounted 
a horse and rode on for his life. 

Alexander and his army soon abandoned the 
pursuit, and returned to take possession of the 
Persian camp. The tents of King Darius and 
his household were inconceivably splendid, and 
were filled with gold and silver vessels, caskets, 
\rases, boxes of perfumes, and every imaginable 
article of luxury and show. The mother and 
wife of Darius bewailed their hard fate with 
cries and tears, and continued all the evening 
in an agony of consternation and despair. 

Alexander, hearing of this, sent Leonnatus, 
his former teacher, a man of years and gravity, 
to quiet their fears and comfort them, so far as 
it was possible to comfort them. In addition 



140 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 383 

The mother and wife of Darius taken captive. Their griel 

to their own captivity, they supposed that Da- 
rius was killed, and the mother was mourning 
oitterly for her son, and the wife for her hus- 
band. Leonnatus, attended by some soldiers, 
advanced toward the tent where these mourn- 
ers were dwelling. The attendants at the door 
ran in and informed them that a body of Greeks 
were coming. This threw them into the great- 
est consternation. They anticipated violence 
and death, and threw themselves upon the 
ground in agony. Leonnatus waited some time 
at the door for the attendants to return. At 
length he entered the tent. This renewed the 
terrors of the women. They began to entreat 
him to spare their lives, at least until there 
should be time for them to see the remains of 
the son and husband whom they mourned, and 
to pay the last sad tribute to his memory. 

Leonnatus soon relieved their fears. He told 
them that he was charged by Alexander to say 
to them that Darius was alive, having made his 
escape in safety. As to themselves, Alexander 
assured them, he said, that they should not be 
injured; that not only were their persons and 
lives to be protected, but no change was to be 
made in their condition or mode of life ; they 
ehould continue to be treated like queens. He 



B.C. 333.] Defeat of Darius. 141 

Alexander's kindness to the captives. Hephaestion. 

added, moreover, that Alexander wished him to 
say that he felt no animosity or ill will whatev< 
er against Darius He was but technically his 
*3nemy, being only engaged in a generous and 
lionorable contest with him for the empire of 
Asia. Saying these things, Leonnatus raised 
the disconsolate ladies from the ground, and they 
gradually regained some degree of composure. 

Alexander himself went to pay a visit to the 
captive princesses the next day. He took with 
him Hephaestion. HephsBstion was Alexander's 
personal friend. The two young men were of 
the same age, and, though Alexander had the 
good sense to retain in power all the old and 
experienced officers which his father had em- 
ployed, both in the court and army, he showed 
that, after all, ambition had not overwhelmed 
and stifled all the kindlier feelings of the heart, 
by his strong attachment to this young compan- 
ion. Hephaestion was his confidant, his asso- 
ciate, his personal friend. He did what very 
few monarchs have done, either before or since, 
in securing for himself the pleasures of friend- 
ship, and of intimate social communion with a 
heart kindred to his own, without ruining him- 
self by committing to a favorite powers which 
he was not qualified to wield. Alexander left 



142 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333. 

Alexander's interview with the queens. A mistake. 

the wise and experienced Parmenio to manage 
the camp, while he took the young and hand- 
some Hephsestion to accompany him on his visit 
to the captive queens. 

When the two friends entered the tent, the 
ladies were, from some cause, deceived, and mis- 
took Hephsestion for Alexander, and addressed 
him, accordingly, with tokens of high respect and 
homage. One of their attendants immediately 
rectified the mistake, telling them that the oth- 
er was Alexander. The ladies were at first over- 
whelmed with confusion, and attempted to apol- 
ogize ; but the king reassured them at once by 
the easy and good-natured manner with which 
he passed over the mistake, saying it was no 
mistake at all. '^It is true," said he, '^that I 
arn Alexander, but then he is Alexander too." 

The wife of Darius was young and very beau- 
tiful, and they had a little son who was with 
them in the camp. It seems almost unaccount- 
able that Darius should have brought such a 
helpless and defenseless charge with him into 
camps and fields of battle. But the truth was 
that he had no idea of even a battle with Alex- 
ander, and as to defeat, he did not contemplate 
the remotest possibility of it He regarded Al- 
exander as a mere boy- — energetic and darings 



B.C. 333.] Defeat of Darius 143 

Boldness of Alexander's policy. Number of Persians slain 

it is true, and at the head of a desperate band 
of adventurers ; but he considered his whole 
force as altogether too insignificant to make any 
stand against such a vast military power as he 
was bringing against him. He presumed that 
he would retreat as fast as possible before the 
Persian army came near him. The idea of 
such a boy coming down at break of day, from 
narrow defiles of the mountains, upon his vast 
encampment covering all the plains, and in 
twelve hours putting the whole mighty mass 
to flight, was what never entered his imagina- 
tion at all. The exploit was, indeed, a very ex- 
traordinary one. Alexander's forces may have 
consisted of forty or fifty thousand men, and, 
if we may believe their story, there were over 
a hundred thousand Persians left dead upon the 
field. Many of these were, however, killed by 
the dreadful confusion and violence of the retreat, 
as vast bodies of horsemen, pressing through the 
defiles, rode over and trampled down the foot 
soldiers who were toiling in awful confusion 
along the way, having fled before the horsemen 
:eft the field. 

Alexander had heard that Darius had left the 
greater part of his royal treasures in Damas- 
cus- and he sent Parmenio there to seize tJiern 
28 



144 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 

Capture of immense treasure. Negotiations, 

This expedition was successful. An enormous 
amount of gold and silver fell into Alexander's 
hands. The plate was coined into money, and 
many of the treasures were sent to Greece. 

Darius got together a small remnant of his 
army and continued his flight. He did not 
stop until he had crossed the Euphrates. He 
then sent an embassador to Alexander to make 
propositions for peace. He remonstrated with 
him, in the communication which he made, for 
ooming thus to invade his dominions, and urged 
him to withdraw and be satisfied with his own 
kingdom. He offered him any sum he might 
name as a ransom for his mother, wife, and 
child, and agreed that if he would deliver them 
up to him on the payment of the ransom, and 
depart from his dominions, he would thenceforth 
regard him as an ally and a friend. 

Alexander replied by a letter, expressed in 
brief but very decided language. He said that 
the Persians had, under the ancestors of Dari- 
us, crossed the Hellespont, invaded Greece, laid 
waste the country, and destroyed cities and 
towns, and had thus done them incalculable in- 
jury ; and that Darius himself had been plotting 
against his (Alexander's) life, and offering re 
wards to any one who would kill him. '^ I am 



BC.333.] Defeat of Darius. 145 

Alexander's message to Darius. Grecian captives. 

acting, then," continued Alexander, '^only on 
the defensive. The gods, who always favor the 
right, have given me the victory. I am now 
monarch of a large part of Asia, and your sov- 
ereign king. If you will admit this, and come 
to me as my subject, I will restore to you your 
mother, your wife, and your child, without any 
ransom. And, at any rate, whatever you de- 
cide in respect to these proposals, if you wish 
to communicate with me on any subject here- 
after, I shall pay no attention to what you send 
unless you address it to me as your king." 

One circumstance occurred at the close of 
this great victory which illustrates the magna- 
nimity of Alexander's character, and helps to ex- 
plain the very strong personal attachment which 
every body within the circle of his influence so 
obviously felt for him. He found a great num- 
ber of envoys and embassadors from the various 
states of Greece at the Persian court, and these 
persons fell into his hands among the other 
captives. Now the states and cities of Greece, 
all except Sparta and Thebes, which last city 
he had destroyed, were combined ostensibly in 
the confederation by which Alexander was sus- 
tained. It seems, however, that there was a 
secret enmity against him in Greece, and vari- 
K 



146 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 

The Theban envoys. Alexander's victorious progress. 

ous parties had sent messengers and agents to 
the Persian court to aid in plots and schemes 
to interfere with and defeat Alexander's plans. 
The Thebans, scattered and disorganized as they 
were, had sent envoys in this way. Now Al- 
exander, in considering what disposition he 
should make of these emissaries from his own 
land, decided to regard them all as traitors ex- 
cept the Thebans. All except the Thebans 
were traitors^ he maintained, for acting secret- 
ly against him, while ostensibly, and by solemn 
covenants, they were his friends. '' The case 
of the Thebans is very different," said he. '' I 
have destroyed their city, and they have a right 
to consider me their enemy, and to do all they 
can to oppose my progress, and to regain their 
own lost existence and their former power.'' So 
he gave them their liberty and sent them away 
with marks of consideration and honor. 

As the vast army of the Persian monarch 
had now been defeated, of course none of the 
smaller kingdoms or provinces thought of resist- 
ing. They yielded one after another, and Al- 
exander appointed governors of his own to rule 
over them. He advanced in this manner along 
the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, 
meeting with no obstruction until he reached 
the great and powerful city of Tyre. 



B.C. 333.JTHE Siege of Tyre. 147 

The city of Tyre. Its situation and extent 



Chapter VII. 

The Siege of Tyre. 

f jlHE city of Tyre stood on a small island, 
-*- three or four miles in diameter,^ on the 
eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It 
wasj in those days, the greatest commercial city 
in the world, and it exercised a great maritime 
power by means of its fleets and ships, which 
traversed every part of the Mediterranean. 

Tyre had been built originally on the main- 
land ; but in some of the wars which it had to 
encounter with the kings of Babylon in the 
East, this old city had been abandoned by the 
inhabitants, and a new one built upon an isl- 
and not far from the shore, which could be more 
easily defended from an enemy. The old city 
had gone to ruin, and its place was occupied by 
old walls, fallen towers, stones, columns, arch- 
es, and other remains of the ancient magnifi- 
cence of the place. 

The island on which the Tyre of Alexander's 

* There are different stateraents in respect to the size of 
this island^ varying from three to nine miles in circumference 



148 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 338 

Pursuits of the Tyrians. Their great wealth and resources 

day had been built was about half a mile from 
the shore. The water between was about 
eighteen feet deep, and formed a harbor for the 
vessels. The great business of the Tyriang 
was commerce. They bought and sold mer- 
chandise in all the ports of the Mediterranean 
Sea, and transported it by their merchant ves- 
sels to and fro. They had also fleets of war 
galleys, which they used to protect their inter- 
ests on the high seas, and in the various ports 
which their merchant vessels visited. They 
were thus wealthy and powerful, and yet they 
lived shut up upon their little island, and were 
almost entirely independent of the main-land. 

The city itself, however, though contracted 
in extent on account of the small dimensions 
of the island, was very compactly built and 
strongly fortified, and it contained a vast num- 
ber of stately and magnificent edifices, which 
were filled with stores of wealth that had been 
accumulated by the mercantile enterprise and 
thrift of many generations. Extravagant sto- 
ries are told by the historians and geographers 
of those days, in respect to the scale on which 
the structures of Tyre were built. It was s^-id, 
for instance, that the walls were one hundred 
and fifty feet high. It is true that the walls 



B.C.333.] The Siege of Tyre. 149 

The walls of Tyre. Influence and power of Tyr© 

rose directly from the surface of the water, and 
of course a considerable part of their elevation 
was required to bring them up to the level of 
the surface of the land ; and then, in addition tii 
this, they had to be carried up the whole ordi- 
nary height of a city wall to afford the usual 
protection to the edifices and dwellings within. 
There might have been some places where the 
walls themselves, or structures connected with 
them, were carried up to the elevation above 
named, though it is scarcely to be supposed that 
such could have been their ordinary dimensions 

At any rate. Tyre was a very wealthy, mag- 
nificent, and powerful city, intent on its com 
mercial operations, and w^ell furnished with 
means of protecting them at sea, but feeling 
little interest, and taking little part, in the con- 
tentions continually arising among the rival 
powers which had possession of the land. Their 
policy was to retain their independence, and yet 
to keep on good terms with all other powers, 
so that their commercial intercourse with the 
ports of all nations might go on undisturbed. 

It was, of course, a very serious question 
with Alexander, as his route lay now through 
Plioenicia and in the neighborhood of Tyre, what 
he should do in respect to such a port. He did 



150 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 

Alexander hesitates in regard to Tyre. Presents from the Tynans 

not like to leave it behind him and proceed to 
the eastward; for, in case of any leverses hap- 
pening to him, the Tyrians would be very like- 
ly to act decidedly against him, and their pow- 
er on the Mediterranean would enable them to 
act very efficiently against him on all the coasts 
of Greece and Asia Minor. On the other hand, 
it seemed a desperate undertaking to attack the 
city. He had none but land forces, and the isl- 
and was half a mile from the shore. Besides 
its enormous walls, rising perpendicularly out of 
the water, it was defended by ships well armed 
and manned. It was not possible to surround 
the city and starve it into submission, as the 
inhabitants had wealth to buy, and ships to 
bring in, any quantity of provisions and stores 
by sea. Alexander, however, determined not 
to follow Darius toward the east, and leave such 
a stronghold as this behind him. 

The Tyrians wished to avoid a quarrel if it 
were possible. They sent complimentary mes- 
sages to Alexander, congratulating him on his 
conquests, and disavowing all feelings of hostil- 
ity to him. They also sent him a golden crown, 
as many of the other states of Asia had done, 
in token of their yielding a general submission 
to his authority. Alexander returned very gra- 



B.C. 333.] The Siege of Tyre. 151 

A-lexander refused admittance into Tyre. He resolves to attack it 

i?ious replies, and expressed to them his inten- 
tion of coming to Tyre for the purpose of offer- 
ing sacrifices, as he said, to Hercules, a god 
whom the Tyrians worshiped. 

The Tyrians knew that wherever Alexander 
went he went at the head of his army, and his 
coming into Tyre at all implied necessarily his 
taking military possession of it. They thought 
it might, perhaps, be somewhat difficult to dis- 
possess such a visitor after he should once get 
installed in their castles and palaces. So they 
sent him word that it w^ould not be in their 
power to receive him in the city itself, but that 
he could offer the sacrifice which he intended on 
the main-land, as there was a temple sacred to 
Hercules among the ruins there. 

Alexander then called a council of his offi- 
cers, and stated to them his views. He said 
that, on reflecting fully upon the subject, he had 
come to the conclusion that it was best to post- 
pone pushing his expedition forward uito the 
heart of Persia until he should have subdued 
Tyre completely, and made himself master of 
the Mediterranean Sea. He said, also, that he 
should take possession of Egypt before turning 
his arms toward the forces that Darius was 
gathering against him in the East. The gen- 



152 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 

Alexander's plan. Its difficulties and dangers 

erals of the army concurred in this opinion, and 
Alexander advanced toward Tyre. The Tyri- 
ans prepared for their defense. 

After examining carefully all the circumstan- 
ces of the case, Alexander conceived the very 
bold plan of building a broad causeway from the 
main-land to the island on which the city was 
founded, out of the ruins of old Tyre, and then 
marching his army over upon it to the walls of 
the city, where he could then plant his engines 
and make a breach. This would seem to be a 
very desperate undertaking. It is true the 
stones remaining on the site of the old city af- 
forded sufficient materials for the construction 
of the pier, but then the work must go on against 
a tremendous opposition, both from the walls of 
the city itself and from the Tyrian ships in the 
harbor. It would seem to be almost impossible 
to protect the men from these attacks so as to 
allow the operations to proceed at all, and the 
difficulty and danger must increase very rapidly 
as the work should approach the walls of the 
city. But, notwithstanding these objections, 
Alexander determined to proceed. Tyre must 
be taken, and this was obviously the only pes*- 
sible mode of taking it. 

The soldiers advanced to undertake the work 



B.C. 333.] The Siege of Tyre. 153 

Enthusiasm of the army. Construction of the pier. 

with great readiness. Their strong personal at- 
tachment to Alexander ; their confidence that 
whatever he should plan and attempt would 
succeed ; the novelty and boldness of this design 
of reaching an island by building an isthmus to 
it from the main-land — these and other similar 
considerations excited the ardor and enthusiasm 
of the troops to the highest degree. 

In constructing works of this kind in the wa- 
ter, the material used is sometimes stone and 
sometimes earth. So far as earth is employed, 
it is necessary to resort to some means to pre- 
vent its spreading under the water, or being 
washed away by the dash of the waves at its 
sides. This is usually effected by driving what 
are called piles^ which are long beams of wood, 
pointed at the end, and driven into the earth by 
means of powerful engines. Alexander sent 
parties of men into the mountains of Lebanon, 
where were vast forests of cedars, which were 
very celebrated in ancient times, and which are 
often alluded to in the sacred scriptures. They 
cut down these trees, and brought the stems of 
them to the shore, where they sharpened them 
at one end and drove them into the sand, in or- 
der to pro^tect the sides of their embankment 
Others brought stones from the ruins and turn 



154 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333. 

Progress of the work. Counter operatior.^ of the lyrians. 

bled them into the sea in the direction whero 
the pier was to be bnilt. It was some time be- 
fore the work made such progress as to attract 
much attention from Tyre. At length, howev- 
er, when the people of the city saw it gradually 
increasing in size and advancing toward them, 
they concluded that they must engage in earn- 
est in the work' of arresting its progress. 

They accordingly constructed engines on the 
walls to throw heavy darts and stones over the 
water to the men upon the pier. They sent 
secretly to the tribes that inhabited the valleys 
and ravines among the mountains, to attack 
the parties at work there, and they landed for- 
ces from the city at some distance from the 
pier, and then marched along the shore, and at- 
tempted to drive away the men that were en- 
gaged in carrying stones from the ruins. They 
also fitted up and manned some galleys of large 
size, and brought them up near to the pier it- 
self, and attacked the men who were at work 
upon it with stones, darts, arrows, and missiles 
. of every description. 

But all was of no avail. The work, though 
impeded, still went on. Alexander built large 
screens of wood upon the pier, covering them 
with hides, which protected his soldiers from thg 



B.C. 333.] The Siege of Tyre. 155 

StrucUires erected on the pier. The Tynans fit up a fire ship 

weapons of the enemy, so that they could carry 
on their operations safely behind them. By 
these means the work advanced for some' dis- 
tance further. As it advanced, various struc- 
tures vrere erected upon it, especially along the 
sides and at the end toward the city. These 
structures consisted of great engines for driving 
piles, and machines for throwing stones and 
darts, and towers carried up to a great height, 
to enable the men to throw stones and heavy 
weapons down upon the galleys which might 
attempt to approach them. 

At length the Tyrians determin-ed on attempt- 
*ng to destroy all these wooden works by means 
of what is called in modern times a fi7'e ship. 
They took a large galley, and filled it with com- 
bustibles of every kind. They loaded it first 
with light dry wood, and they poured pitch, and 
tar, and oil over all this wood to make it burn 
with fiercer flames. They saturated the sails 
and the cordage in the same manner, and laid 
trains of combustible materials through all parts 
of the vessel, so that when fire should be set in , 
one part it would immediately spread every 
where, and set the whole mass in flames at 
once. They towed this ship, on a windy day, 
near to the enemy's works, and on the side from 



156 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333 

The ship fired and set adrift. The conflagi'ation 

which the wind was blowing. They then put 
it in motion toward the pier at a point where 
there was the greatest collection of engines and 
macliines, and when they had got as near as 
they dared to go themselves, the men who were 
on board set the trains on fire, and made their 
escape in boats. The flames ran all over the 
vessel with inconceivable rapidity. The vessel 
itself drifted down upon Alexander's works, not- 
withstanding the most strenuous exertions of 
his soldiers to keep it away. The frames and 
engines, and the enormous and complicated ma- 
chines which had been erected, took fire, and 
the whole mass was soon enveloped in a gener- 
al conflagration. 

The men made desperate attempts to defend 
their works, but all in vain. Some were killed 
by arrows and darts, some were burned to 
death, and others, in the confusion, fell into 
the sea. Finally, the army was obliged to draw 
back, and to abandon all that was combustible 
in the vast construction they had reared, to the 
devouring flames. 

Not long after this the sea itself came to the 
aid of the Tyrians. There was a storm ; and, 
as a consequence of it, a heavy swell rolled in 
from th3 oifing, which soon undermined and 



B.C. 333.] The Siege of Tyre. 159 



Eifects of the storm. The work began anew. 

washed away a large part of the pier. The ef- 
fects of a heavy sea on the most massive ami 
substantial structures, when they are fairly ex- 
posed to its impulse, are far greater than would 
be conceived possible by those w^ho had not wit- 
nessed them. The most ponderous stones are 
removed, the strongest fastenings are torn asun- 
der, and embankments the most compact and 
solid are undermined and washed away. The 
storm, in this case, destroyed in a few hours the 
work of many months, while the army of Alex- 
ander looked on from the shore witnessing its 
ravages in dismay. 

When the storm was over, and the first shock 
of chagrin and disappointment had passed from 
the minds of the men, Alexander prepared to 
resume the work with fresh vigor and energy. 
The men commenced repairing the pier and wid- 
ening it, so as to increase its strength and capac- 
ity. They dragged whole trees to the edges of 
it, and sunk them, branches and all, to the bot« 
torn, to form a sort of platform there, to prevent 
the stones from sinking into the slime. They 
built new towers and engines, covering them 
with green hides to make them fire-proof ; and 
thus they were soon advancing again, and 
gradually drawing nearer to the city, and in a 
29 



160 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333» 

Alexander collects a fleet. Warlike engines, 

more threatening and formidable manner than 
ever. 

Alexander, finding that his efforts were im- 
})eded very much by the ships of the Tyrians, 
determined on collecting and equipping a fleet 
of his own. This he did at Sidon, which was 
a town a short distance north of Tyre. He em- 
barked on board this fleet himself, and came 
down with it into the Tyrian seas. "With this 
fleet he had various success. He chained many 
of the ships together, two and two, at a little 
distance apart, covering the inclosed space with 
a platform, on which the soldiers could stand to 
fight. The men also erected engines on these 
platforms to attack the city. These engines 
were of various kinds. There was what they 
called the battering ram, which was a long and 
very heavy beam of wood, headed with iron or 
brass. This beam was suspended by a chain 
in the middle, so that it could be swung back 
and forth by the soldiers, its head striking 
against the wall each time, by which means 
the wall would sometimes be soon battered down. 
They had also machines for throwing great 
stones, or beams of wood, by means of the elas- 
tic force of strong bars of wood, or of steel, or 
that of tw^isted ropes. The part of the machine 



B.C.333.] The Siege of Tyre. 161 

Double galleys. The women removed from Tyre, 

upon which the stone was placed would be 
drawn back by the united strength of many of 
the soldiers, and then, as it recovered itself when 
released, the stone would be thrown off into the 
air with prodigious velocity and force. 

Alexander's double galleys answered very 
well as long as the water was smooth ; but 
sometimes, when they were caught out in a 
swell, the rolling of the waves would rack and 
twist them so as to tear the platforms asun- 
der, and sink the men in the sea. Thus diffi- 
culties unexpected and formidable were contin- 
ually arising. Alexander, however, persevered 
through them all. The Tyrians, finding them- 
selves pressed more and more, and seeing that 
the dangers impending became more and more 
formidable every day, at length concluded to 
send a great number of the women and children 
away to Carthage, which was a great commer- 
cial city in Africa. They were determined not 
to submit to Alexander, but to carry their re- 
sistance to the very last extremity. And as 
the closing scenes of a siege, especially if the 
place is at last taken by storm, are awful be- 
yond description, they wished to save their v/ives, 
and daughters, and helpless babes from having 
to witness them. 



162 Alexainder the Great. [B.C. o33. 

The siege advances. Undaunted courage of the Tynans. 

In the mean time, as the siege advanced, the 
parties became more and more incensed against 
each other. They treated the captives which 
they took on either side with greater and great- 
er cruelty, each thinking that they were only 
retaliating Vv-orse injuries from the other. The 
Macedonians approached nearer and nearer. 
The resources of the unhappy city were gradu- 
ally cut off and its strength worn away. The 
engines approached nearer and nearer to the 
walls, until the battering rams bore directly 
upon them, and breaches began to be made. 
At length one great breach on the southern side 
w^as found to be '^ practicable," as they call it. 
Alexander began to prepare for the final assault, 
and the Tyrians saw before them the horrible 
prospect of being taken by storm. 

Still they would not submit. Submission 
would now have done but little good, though it 
might have saved some of the final b )rrors of 
the scene. Alexander had become gieatly ex- 
asperated by the long resistance which the Tyr* 
ians had made. They probably could not now 
have averted destruction, but they might, per- 
haps, have prevented its coming upon them in 
so terrible a shape as the irruption of thirty 
thousand frantic and infuriated soldiers through 



B.C. 333.] The Siege op Tyre. 1(53 

h breach made. The assault. 

the breaches in their walls to take their city by 
storm. 

The breach by which Alexander proposed to 
force his entrance was on the southern side. He 
prepared a number of ships, with platforms rais- 
ed upon them in such a manner that, on getting 
near the walls, they could be let down, and 
form a sort of bridge, over which the men could 
pass to the broken fragments of the wall, and 
thence ascend through the bieach above. 

The plan succeeded. The ships advanced to 
the proposed place of landing. The bridges 
were let down. The men crowded over them 
to the foot of the wall. They clambered up 
through the breach to the battlements above, 
although the Tyrians thronged the passage and 
made the most depperate resistance. Hundreds 
were killed by darts, and arrows, and falling 
stones, and their oodies tumbled into the sea. 
The others, paying no attention to their falling 
comrades, and drowning the hori id screams of 
the crushed and the dying with their own fran- 
tic shouts of rage and fury, pressed on up the 
broken Vv^all till they reached the battlements 
above. The vast throng then rolled along upon 
the top of the wall till they came to stairvrays 
and slopes by which they could descend into tlie 



164 Alexander THE Great. [B.C. 333 

Storming the city. Barbarous cruelties of Alexander 

city, and, pouring down through all these ave- 
nues, they spread over the streets, and satiated 
the hatred and rage, which had been gathering 
strength for seven long months, in bursting into 
houses, and killing and destroying all that came 
in their way. Thus the city was stormed. 

After the soldiers were weary with the work 
of slaughtering the wretched inhabitants of the 
city, they found that many still remained alive, 
and Alexander tarnished the character for gen- 
erosity and forbearance for which he had thus 
far been distinguished by the cruelty with which 
he treated them. Some were executed, some 
thrown into the sea ; and it is even said that 
two thousand were crucified along the sea-shore. 
This may mean that their bodies were placed 
upon crosses after life had been destroyed by 
some more humane method than crucifixion. 
At any rate, we find frequent indications from 
this time that prosperity and power were be- 
ginning to exert their usual unfavorable influ- 
ence upon Alexander's character. He became 
haughty, imperious, and cruel. He lost the 
modesty and gentleness which seemed to char- 
acterize him in the earlier part of his life, and 
began to assume the moral character, as well 
as perform the exploits, of a military hero. 



B.C.333.] The Siege op Tyre. 165 

Change in Alexander's character. His harsh message to Darius. 

A good illustration of this is afforded by the 
answer that he sent to Darius, about the time 
of the storming of Tyre, in reply to a second 
communication which he had received from him 
proposing terms of peace. Darius offered him 
a very large sum of money for the ransom of 
his mother, wife, and child, and agreed to give 
up to him all the country he had conquered, in- 
cluding the whole territory west of the Euphra- 
tes. He also offered him his daughter Statira 
in marriage. He recommended to him to ac- 
cept these terms, and be content with the pos- 
sessions he had already acquired ; that he could 
not expect to succeed, if he should try, in cross- 
ing the mighty rivers of the East, which were 
in the way of his march toward the Persian do- 
minions. 

Alexander replied, that if he wished to mar- 
ry his daughter he could do it without his con- 
sent ; as to the ransom, he was not in want of 
money ; in respect to Darius's offering to give 
him up all west of the Euphrates, it was ab- 
surd for a man to speak of giving what was no 
longer his own ; that he had crossed too many 
seas in his military expeditions, since he left 
Macedon, to feel any concern about the rivers 
that he might find in his way; and that he 



166 Alexander the: Great. [B.C. 333. 

Alexander's reply to Parmenio. The hero rises, but the man sinks. 

should continue to pursue Darius wherever he 
might retreat in search of safety and protection, 
and he had no fear but that he should find and 
conquer him at last. 

It was a harsh and cruel message to send to 
the unhappy monarch whom he had already so 
greatly injured. Parmenio advised him to ac- 
cept Darius's offers. ^'I would," said he, ''if 
I were Alexander." ''Yes," said Alexander, 
" and so would I if I were Parmenio." What 
a reply from a youth of twenty-two to a vener- 
able general of sixty, who had been so tried and 
faithful a friend, and so efficient a coadjutor both 
to his father and to himself, for so many years. 

The siege and storming of Tyre has always 
been considered one of the greatest of Alexan- 
der's exploits. The boldness, the perseverance, 
the indomitable energy which he himself and 
all his army manifested, during the seven months 
of their Herculean toil, attracted the admiration 
of the world. And yet we find our feelings of 
sympathy for his character, and interest in his 
fate, somewhat alienated by the indications of 
])ride, imperiousness, and cruelty which begin 
to appear. While he rises in our estimation as 
a military hero, he begins to sink somewhat as 
a man. 



B.C.333.] The Siege of Tyre. 167 

Lysiraachus. Alexander's adventure in the mountains 

And yet the change was not sudden. He 
bore during the siege his part in the privations 
and difficulties which the soldiers had to en- 
dure ; and the dangers to which they had to be 
exposed, he was always willing to share. One 
night he was out with a party upon the mount- 
ains. Among his few immediate attendants 
vvas Lysimachus, one of his former teachers, 
who always loved to accompany him at such 
times. Lysimachus was advanced in life, and 
somewhat infirm, and consequently could not 
keep up with the rest in the march. Alexan- 
der remained with Lysimachus, and ordered the 
rest to go on. The road at length became so 
rugged that they had to dismount from their 
horses and walk. Finally they lost their way, 
and found themselves obliged to stop for the 
night. They had no fire. They saw, howev- 
er, at a distance, some camp fires blazing which 
belonged to the barbarian tribes against whom 
the expedition was directed. Alexander vfcnt 
to the nearest one. There were two men lying 
by it, who had been stationed to take care of it. 
He advanced stealthily to them and killed them 
both, probably while they were asleep. He then 
took a brand from their fire, carried it back to 
liis own encampment, where he made a blazing 



168 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 333. 

What credit is to be given to the adventure. 

fire for himself and Lysimachus, and they passed 
the night in comfort and safety. This is the 
story. How far we are to give credit to it, each 
reader must judge for himself. One thing is 
certain, however, that there are many military 
heroes of whom such stories would not be even 
fabricated. 



B.C.332.] Alexander in Egypt. 160 

Alexander in Judea. Josephus, and the character of his writings 



Chapter VIIL 

Alexander in Egypt. 

4 FTER completing the subjugation of Tyi e, 
-^^^ Alexander commenced his march for 
Egypt. His route led him through Judea. 
The time was about three hundred years before 
the birth of Christ, and, of course, this passage 
of the great conqueror through the land of Isra- 
el took place between the historical periods of 
the Old Testament and of the New, so that no 
account of it is given in the sacred volume. 

There was a Jewish writer named Josephus, 
who lived and wrote a few years after Christ, 
and, of course, more than three hundred years 
after Alexander. He wrote a history of the 
Jews, which is a very entertaining book to read ; 
but he liked so much to magnify the importance 
of the events in the history of his country, and 
to embellish them with marvelous and super- 
natural incidents, that his narratives have not 
always been received with implicit faith. Jo- 
sephus says that, as Alexander passed through 
Palestine, he went to pay a visit to Jerusalem, 



170 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 382 

Alexander's visit to Jerusalem. Josephas's account of it 

The circumstances of this visit, according to his 
account, were these. 

The city of Tyre, before Alexander besieged 
it, as it lived entirely by commerce, and v^as 
surrounded by the sea, had to depend on the 
neighboring countries for a supply of food. The 
people were accordingly accustomed to purchase 
grain in Phoenicia, in Judea, and in Egypt, and 
transport it by their ships to the island. Alex- 
ander, in the same manner, when besieging the 
city, found that he must depend upon the neigh* 
boring countries for supplies of food ; and he ac- 
cordingly sent requisitions for such supplies to 
several places, and, among others, to Judea. The 
Jews, as Josephus says, refused to send any 
such supplies, saying that it would be incon- 
sistent with fidelity to Darius, under whose gov- 
ernment they were. 

• Alexander took no notice of this reply at the 
time, being occupied with the siege of Tyre ; 
but, as soon as that city was taken, and he was 
ready to pass through Judea, he directed his 
inarch toward Jerusalem with the intention of 
destroying the city. 

Now the chief magistrate at Jerusalem at 
this time, the one who had the command of the 
city, ruling it, of course, under a general re- 



B.C. 332.] Alexander in Egypt. 171 

The high priest Jaddus. His ii earn, 

sponsibility to the Perf^ian government, was the 
high priest. His name was Jaddus. In the 
time of Christ, about three hundred years after 
this, the name of the high-priest, as the reader 
will recollect, was Caiaphas. Jaddus and all 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem were very much 
alarmed. They knew not what to do. The 
siege and capture of Tyre had impressed them 
all with a strong sense of Alexander's terrible 
energy and martial power, and they began to 
anticipate certain destruction. 

Jaddus caused great sacrifices to be offered 
to Almighty God, and public and solemn pray- 
ers were made, to implore his guidance and 
protection. The next day after these J^ervices, 
he told the people that they had nothing to fear. 
God had appeared to him in a dream, and di- 
rected him what to do. " We are not to resist 
the conqueror," said he, '^but to go forth to 
meet him and welcome him. We are to strew 
the city w^ith flowers, and adorn it as for a fes» 
tive celebration. The priests are to be dressed 
in their pontifical robes and go forth, and the 
inhabitants are to follow them in a civic pro- 
cession. Ill this way we are to go out to meet 
Alexander as he advances — and all will be well." 

These directions were followed. Alexander 



172 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 332. 

ITie procession of priests. Alexander's account of his drea|r 

was coming on with a full determination to de- 
stroy the city. When, however, he saw this 
procession, and came near enough to distinguish 
the appearance and dress of the high priest, ho 
stopped, seemed surprised and pleased, and ad 
vanced toward him with an air of the profound- 
est deference and respect. He seemed to pay 
him almost rehgious homage and adoration. 
Every one was astonished. Parmenio asked 
him for an explanation. Alexander made the 
following extraordinary statement : 

" When I was in Macedon, before setting out 
on this expedition, while I was revolving the 
subject in my mind, musing day after day on 
the means of conquering Asia, one night I had 
a remarkable dream. In my dream this very 
priest appeared before me, dressed just as he is 
now. He exhorted me to banish every fear, to 
cross the Hellespont boldly, and to push forward 
into the heart of Asia. He said that God would 
march at the head of my army, and give me the 
victory over all the Persians. I recognize thi» 
priest as the same person that appeared to me 
then. He has the same countenance, the same 
dress, the same stature, the same air. It is 
through his encouragement and aid that I am 
here^ and I am ready to worship and ador(3 the 
God whose service he administers." 



B.C.332.] Alexander in Egypt. 173 

Alexander joins in the Jewish ceremonies. Prophecies of Daniel 

Alexander joined the higb priest in the pro- 
cession, and they returned to Jerusalem togeth- 
er. There Alexander united with them and 
with the Jews of the city in the celebration of 
religious rites, by offering sacrifices and obla- 
tions in the Jewish manner. The writings 
which are now printed together in our Bibles, 
as the Old Testament, were, in those days, writ- 
ten separately on parchment rolls, and kept in 
the temple. The priests produced from the 
rolls the one containing the prophecies of Dan- 
iel, and they read and interpreted some of these 
prophecies to Alexander, which they considered 
to have reference to him, though written many 
hundred years before. Alexander was, as Jose- 
phus relates, very much pleased at the sight of 
these ancient predictions, and the interpretation 
put upon them by the priests. He assured the 
Jews that they should be protected in the exer- 
cise of all their rights, and especially in their 
religious worship, and he also promised them 
that he would take their brethren who resided 
in Media and Babylon under his special charge 
when he should come into possession of those pla- 
ces. These Jews of Media and Babylon were 
the descendants of captives which had been car- 
ried away from their native )and in former wars. 



174 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 332 

Doubts about Alexander's visit. Siege of 

Such is the story which Jo>sephus relates* 
The Greek historians, on the other hand, make 
no mention of this visit to Jerusalem ; and some 
persons think that it was never made, but that 
the story arose and was propagated from gen- 
eration to generation among the Jews, through 
the influence of their desire to magnify the im- 
portance and influence of their w^orship, and 
that Josephus incorporated the account into his 
history without sufficiently verifying the facts. 

However it may be in regard to Jerusalem, 
Alexander was delayed at Gaza, which, as may 
be seen upon the map, is on the shore of the 
Mediterranean Sea. It was a place of consid- 
erable commerce and wealth, and was, at this 
time, under the command of a governor whom 
Darius had stationed there. His name was 
Betis. Betis refused to surrender the place. 
Alexander stopped to besiege it, and the siege 
delayed him two months. He was very much 
exasperated at this, both against Betis and 
against the city. 

His unreasonable anger was very much in- 
creased by a wound which he received. He 
was near a mound which his soldiers had been 
constructing near the city, to place engines upon 
for an attack upon the walls, when an arrow 



B.C. 332.] Alexander in Egypt. 175 

Alexander receives a wound. Gaza taken by storm. 

shot from one of the engines upon the walls, 
struck him in the breast. It penetrated his ar- 
mor, and wounded him deeply in the shoulder. 
The wound was very painful for some time, and 
the suffering which he endured from it only add- 
ed fuel to the flame of his anger against the city. 
At last breaches were made in the walls, and 
the place was taken by storm. Alexander treat- 
ed the wretched captives with extreme cruelty. 
He cut the garrison to pieces, and sold the in- 
habitants to slavery. As for Betis, he dealt 
with him in a manner almost too horrible to be 
described. The reader will recollect that Achil- 
les, at the siege of Troy, after killing Hector, 
dragged his dead body around the walls of the 
city. Alexander, growing more cruel as he be- 
came more accustomed to war and bloodshed, 
had been mtending to imitate this example so 
soon as he could find an enemy Vv^orthy of such 
a fate. He now determined to carry his plan 
into execution v/ith Betis. He ordered him into 
his presence. A few years before, he v/ould havf^ 
rewarded him for his fidelity in his master's ser\- 
ioe ; but now, grown selfxsh, hard hearted, and 
revengeful, he looked upon him with a counte- 
nance full of vindictive exultation, and said, 

'' You are not going to die the simple death 
30 



176 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 332 

Alexander's brutality to the brave Betis. Rich treasureg 

that you desire. You have got the worst tor- 
ments that revenge can invent to suffer." 

Betis did not reply, but looked upon Alexan- 
der with a calm, and composed, and unsubdued 
air, which incensed the conqueror more and 
more. 

" Observe his dumb arrogance," said Alexan- 
der ; " but I will conquer him. I will show 
him that I can draw groans from him, if noth- 
ing else." 

He then ordered holes to be made through the 
heels of his unhappy captive, and, passing a rope 
through them, had the body fastened to a char- 
iot, and dragged about the city till no life re- 
mained. 

Alexander found many rich treasures in Gaza. 
He sent a large part of them to his mother Olym- 
pias, whom he had left in Macedon. Alexan- 
der's affection for his mother seems to have been 
more permanent than almost any other good 
trait in his character. He found, in addition to 
other stores of valuable merchandise, a large 
quantity of frankincense and myrrh. These are 
gums which were brought from Arabia, and 
were very costly. They were vised chiefly in 
making offerings and in burning incense to the 
gods. 



B.C. 332.] Alexander in Egypt. 177 

Story of Alexanders youth. Pelusiunx 

When Alexander was a young man in Mace- 
don, before his father's death, he was one day 
present at tlie offering of sacrifices, and one of 
liis teachers and guardians, named Leonnatus, 
who was standing by, thought he was rather 
profuse in his consumption of frankincense and 
myrrh. He was taking it up by handfuls and 
throwing it upon the fire. Leonnatus reproved 
him for this extravagance, and told him that 
when he became master of the countries where 
these costly gums were procured, he might be 
as prodigal of them as he pleased, but that in 
the mean time it would be proper for him to be 
more prudent and economical. Alexander re- 
membered this reproof, and, finding vast stores 
of these expensive gums in Gaza, he sent the 
whole quantity to Leonnatus, telling him that 
he sent him this abundant supply that he might 
not have occasion to be so reserved and sparing 
for the future in his sacrifices to the gods. 

After this conquest and destruction of Gaza^ 
Alexander continued his march southward to 
the frontiers of Egypt. He reached these fron- 
tiers at the city of Pelusium. The Egyptians 
had been under the Persian dominion, but they 
abhorred it, and were very ready to submit to 
Alexander's sway. They sent embassadors to 
M 



178 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 332. 

Momphis. Fertility of Egypt 

meet him upon the frontiers. The governors of 
the cities, as he advanced into the country, find* 
ing that it would be useless to resist, and warned 
by the terrible example of Thebes, Tyre, and 
Gaza, surrendered to him as fast as he sum- 
moned them. 

He went to Memphis. Memphis was a great 
and powerful city, situated in what was called 
Lower Egypt, on the Nile, just above where 
the branches which form the mouths of the Nile 
separate from the main stream. All that part 
of Egypt is flat country, having been formed by 
the deposits brought down by the Nile. Such 
land is called alluvial ; it is always level, and, 
as it consists of successive deposits from the 
turbid waters of the river, made in the success- 
ive inundations, it forms always a very rich 
soil, deep and inexhaustible, and is, of course, 
extremely fertile. Egypt has been celebrated 
for its unexampled fertility from the earliest 
times. It waves with fields of corn and grain, 
and is adorned with groves of the most luxuri- 
ant growth and richest verdure. 

It is only, however, so far as the land is formed 
by the deposits of the Nile, that this scene of 
verdure and beauty extends. On the east it is 
bounded by ranges of barren and rocky hills; 



B.C.332.] Alexander in Egypt. 179 

Deserts of Egypt Cause of their sterility 

and on the west by vast deserts, consisting of 
moving sands, from which no animal or vegeta- 
ble life can derive the means of existence. The 
reason of this sterility seems to be the absence 
of water. The geological formation of the land 
is such that it furnishes few springs of water, 
and no streams, and in that climate it seldom 
or never rains. If there is water, the most bar- 
ren sands will clothe themselves with some spe- 
cies of vegetation, which, in its decay, will form 
a soil that will nourish more and more fully each 
succeeding generation of plants. But in the ab- 
sence of water, any surface of earth will soon 
become a barren sand The wind will drive 
away every thing imponderable, leaving only 
the heavy sands, to drift in storms, like field.5 of 
snow. 

Among these African deserts, however, there 
are some fertile spots. They are occasioned by 
springs which arise in little dells, and which 
saturate the ground with moisture for some dis- 
tance around them. The water from these 
springs flows for some distance, in many cases, 
in a little stream, before it is finally lost and 
absorbed in the sands. The whole tract undel 
the influence of this irrigation clothes itself 
with verdure. Trees grow up to shade it. It 



180 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 332 

The Great Oasis. Oasis of Siwah. Jupiter Ammon. 

forms a spot whose beauty, absolutely great, is 
iieightened by the contrast which it presents to 
the gloomy and desolate desert by which it is 
surrounded. Such a green spot in the desert 
is called an Oasis. They are the resort and the 
refuge of the traveler and the pilgrim, who seek 
shelter and repose upon them in their weary 
iourneys over the trackless wilds. 

Nor must it be supposed that these islands of 
fertility and verdure are always small. Some 
of them are very extensive, and contain a con- 
siderable population. There is one called the 
Great Oasis, which consists of a chain of fer- 
tile tracts of about a hundred miles in length. 
Another, called the Oasis of Siwah, has, in mod- 
ern times, a population of eight thousand souls 
This last is situated not far from the shores of 
the Mediterranean Sea — at least not very far ; 
perhaps two or three hundred miles — and it was 
a very celebrated spot in Alexander's day. 

The cause of its celebrity was that it was the 
seat and center of the worship of a famous deity 
called Jupiter Ammon. This god was said to 
be the son of Jupiter, though there were all 
gorts of stories about his origin and early histo- 
ry. He had the form of a ram, and was wor- 
shiped by the people of Egypt, and also by the 



B.C. 332.] Alexander in Egypt. 181 

Temple of Jupiter Ammon. Alexander aspires to divine honors. 

Carthaginians, and by the people of Northern 
Africa generally. His temple was in this Oasis, 
and it was surrounded by a considerable popu- 
lation, which w^as supported, in a great degree, 
by the expenditures of the worshipers who came 
as pilgrims, or otherwise, to sacrifice at his 
shrine. 

It is said that Alexander, finding that the va- 
rious objects of human ambition which he had 
been so rapidly attaining by his victories and 
conquests for the past few years were insuffi- 
cient to satisfy him, began now to aspire for 
some supernatural honors, and he accordingly 
conceived, the design of having himself declared 
to be the son of a god. The heroes of Homer 
were sons of the gods. Alexander envied them 
the fame and honor which this distinction gave 
them in the opinion of mankind. He determ- 
ined to visit the temple of Jupiter Ammon in 
the Oasis of Siwah, and to have the declaration 
of his divine origin made by the priests there. 

He proceeded, accordingly, to the mouth ol 
die Nile, where he found a very eligible place, 
as he believed, for the foundation of a commer- 
cial city, and he determined to build it on his 
return. Thence he marched along the shores 
of the Mediterranean, toward the west, until 



182 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 332. 

Alexander crosses the desert. Its sublimity 

he reached a place called Paraetonium, which 
will be found upon the map. He then left the 
gea-shore and marched south, striking at once 
into the desert when he left the sea. He was 
accompanied by a small detachment of his army 
as an escort, and they journeyed eleven days be- 
fore they reached the Oasis. 

They had a variety of perilous adventures in 
crossing the desert. For the first two days the 
soldiers were excited and pleased with the nov- 
elty and romantic grandeur of the scene. The 
desert has, in some degree, the sublimity of the 
ocean. There is the same boundless expanse, 
the same vast, unbroken curve of the horizon, 
the same tracklessness, the same solitude. There 
is, in addition, a certain profound and awful still- 
uess and repose, which imparts to it a new ele- 
ment of impressiveness and grandeur. Its dread 
and solemn silence is far more imposing and 
sublime than the loudest thunders of the seas. 

The third day the soldiers began to be weary 
of such a march. They seemed afraid to pene- 
trate any further into such boundless and terri- 
ble solitudes. They had been obhged to bring 
water with them in goat-skins, which were car- 
ried by camels. The camel is the only beast 
of burden which can be employed upon the des- 



n.C. 332.] Alexander in Egypt. 183 

I'he camel. Scarcity of water 

erts. There is a peculiarity in the anatomical 
structure of this animal by which he can take 
in, at one time, a supply of water for many 
days. He is formed, in fact, for the desert. In 
his native state he lives in the oases and in the 
valleys. He eats the herbage which grows 
among the rocks and hills that alternate VAth 
the great sandy plains in all these countries. 
In passing from one of his scanty pasturages to 
another, he has long journeys to make across 
the sands, where, though he can find food here 
and there, there is no water. Providence has 
formed him with a structure adapted to this ex- 
igency, and by means of it he becomes extreme- 
ly useful to man. 

The soldiers of Alexander did not take a suf- 
ficient supply of water, and were reduced, at 
one time, to great distress. They were relieved, 
the story says, by a rain, though rain is ex- 
tremely unusual in the deserts. Alexander at- 
tributed this supply to the miraculous interpo- 
sition of Heaven. They catch the rain, in such 
cases, with cloths, and afterward wring out th6 
water ; though in this instance, as the histori- 
ans of that day say, the soldiers did not wait 
for this tardy method of supply, but the whole 
detachment held back their heads and opened 



18-1: Alexander the Great. [B.C. 332. 

Sand storms in the desert. Arrival at the Oasia 

their moiithsj to catch the drops of rain as they 
fell. 

There was another danger to which they 
were exposed in their march, more terrible even 
than the scarcity of water. It was that of be- 
ing overwhelmed in the clouds of sand and dust 
which sometimes swept over the desert in gales 
of wind. These were called sand-storms. The 
fine sand flew, in such cases, in driving clouds, 
which filled the eyes and stopped the breath of 
the traveler, and finally buried his body under 
its drifts when he laid down to die. A large 
army of fifty thousand men, under a former Per- 
sian king, had been overwhelmed and destroyed 
in this way, some years before, in some of the 
Egyptian deserts. Alexander's soldiers had 
heard of this calamity, and they were threat- 
ened sometimes with the same fate. They, 
however, at length escaped all the dangers of 
the desert, and began to approach the green and 
fertile land of the Oasis. 

The change from the barren and dismal lone- 
liness of the sandy plains to the groves and the 
villages, the beauty and the verdure of the Oa- 
sis, was delightful both to Alexander himself 
and to all his men. The priests at the great 
temple of Jupiter Ammon received them all 



B.C. 332.] Alexander in Egypt. 



185 



Magnificent ceremonies. 



Return to Memphis. 



with marks of great distinction and honor. The 
most solemn and mxagnilicent ceremonies were 
performed, with offerings, oblations, and sacri- 
fices. The priests, after conferring in secret 
with the god in the temple, came out with the 
annunciation that Alexander was indeed his 
son, and they paid him, accordingly, almost di- 
vine honors. He is supposed to have bribed 
them to do this by presents and pay. Alexan- 
der returned at length to Memphis, and in all 
his subsequent orders and decrees he styled him- 
self Alexander king, son of Jupiter Ammon. 

But, though Alexander was thus willing to 
impress his ignorant soldiers w^ith a mysterious 
veneration for his fictitious divinity, he was not 
deceived himself on the subject ; he sometimes 
even made his pretensions to the divine charac- 
ter a subject of joke. For instance, they one 
day brought him in too little fire in the focus. 
The focus, or fire-place used in Alexander's day. 




A Focus. 



186 Alexander the Great. [B.C.332 



Alexander jokes about his divinity. Founding of Alexandria 

was a small metallic stand, on which the jEire was 
built. It was placed wherever convenient in 
the tent, and the smoke escaped above. They 
had put upon the focus too little fuel one day 
when they brought it in. Alexander asked tho 
officer to let him have either some wood or some 
frankincense ; they might consider him, he said, 
as a god or as a man, whichever they pleased, 
but he wished to be treated either like one or 
the other. 

On his return from the Oasis Alexander car- 
ried forward his plan of building a city at the 
mouth of the Nile. He drew the plan, it is 
said, with his own hands. He superintended 
the constructions, and invited artisans and me- 
chanics from all nations to come and reside in it. 
They accepted the invitation in great numbers, 
and the city soon became large, and wealthy, 
and powerful. It was intended as a commer- 
cial post, and the wisdom and sagacity which 
Alexander manifested in the selection of the site, 
is shown by the fact that the city rose immedi- 
ately to the rank of the great seat of trade and 
commerce for all those shores, and has contin- 
ued to hold that rank now for twenty centuries 

There was an island near the coast, opposite 
the city, called the island of Pharos. They 



B.C. 332.] Alexander in Egypt. 187 

(slimd of Pharos. ITie light-housa 

built a most magnificent light-house upon one 
extremity of this island, which was considered, 
in those days, one of the wonders of the world 
It was said to be five hundred feet high. This 
may have been an exaggeration. At any rate, 
it was celebrated throughout the world in its 
day, and its existence and its greatness made an 
impression on the human mind which has not 
yet been effaced. Pharos is the name for light- 
house, in many languages, to the present day. 
In building the city of Al-exandria, Alexander 
laid aside, for a time, his natural and proper 
character, and assumed a mode of action in 
strong contrast with the ordinary course of his 
life. He was, throughout most of his career, a 
destroyer. He roamed over the world to inter- 
rupt commerce, to break in upon and disturb 
the peaceful pursuits of industry, to batter down 
city walls, and burn dwellings, and kill men. 
This is the true vocation of a hero and a con- 
queror ; but at the mouth of the Nile Alexander 
laid aside this character. He turned his ener- 
gies to the work of planning means to do good. 
He constructed a port; he built warehouses; 
he provided accommodations and protection for 
merchants and artisans. The nations exchang- 
ed their commodities far more easily and exten- 



188 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 332 

Alexandria the only remaining monument of Alexander's greatness. 

sively in consequence of these facilities, and the 
means of comfort and enjoyment were multi- 
plied and increased in thousands and thousands 
of huts in the great cities of Egypt, and in the 
rural districts along the banks of the Nile. The 
good, too, which he thus commenced, has per- 
petuated itself. Alexandria has continued to 
fulfill its beneficent function for two thousand 
years. It is the only monument of his great- 
ness which remains. Every thing else which 
he accomplished perished when he died. How 
much better would it have been for the happi- 
ness of mankind, as well as for his own true 
fame and glory, if doing good had been the rale 
of his life instead of the exception. 



■B.C.331.] The Great Victory. 189 

Alexander makes Tyre his rendezvous. Festivities. 



Chapter IX. 
The Great Victory. 

ALL the western part of Asia was now in 
Alexander's power. He was undisputed 
master of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Judea, and 
Egypt. He returned from Egypt to Tyre, leav- 
ing governors to rule in his name in all the con- 
quered provinces. The injuries which had been 
done to Tyre, during the siege and at the assault, 
were repaired, and it was again a wealthy, pow- 
erful, and prosperous city. Alexander rested 
and refreshed his army there, and spent some 
weeks in most splendid festivities and rejoicings. 
The princes and potentates of all the neighbor- 
ing countries assembled to partake of his hospi- 
tality, to be entertained by the games, the plays, 
the spectacles, and the feastings, and to unite 
in swelling his court and doing him honor. In 
a word, he was the general center of attraction 
for all eyes, and the object of universal homage. 
All this time, however, he was very far from 
being satisfied, or feeling that his work was 
done. Darius, whom he considered his great 



190 Alexander the Great. [B.C.331 

Alexander prepares to march east. The captive queens. 

enemy, was still in the field mistiT}dued. He 
had retreated across the Euphrates, and was 
employed in assembling a vast collection of for- 
ces from all the Eastern nations which were un- 
der his sway, to meet Alexander in the final 
contest. Alexander therefore made arrange- 
ments at Tyre for the proper government of the 
various kingdoms and provinces which he had 
already conquered, and then began to preparG 
for marching eastward with the main body of 
his army. 

During all this time the ladies of Darius's 
family, who had been taken captive at Issus, 
had been retained in captivity, and made to ac- 
company Alexander's army in its marches. Al- 
exander refused to accede to any of the plans 
and propositions which Darius made and oflered 
for the redemption of his wife and mother, but 
insisted on retaining them as his prisoners. He, 
however, treated them with respect and high 
consideration. He provided them with royal 
tents of great magnificence, and had them con- 
veyed from place to place, when his army mov- 
ed, with all the royal state to which they had 
been accustomed when in the court of Darius. 

It has been generally thought a proof of no- 
bleness of spirit and generosity in Alexander 



B.C. 331.] The Great Victory. 191 

Alexander's treatment of the queens. Death of Slatira. 

that he treated his captives in this manner. It 
would seem, however, that true generosity would 
have prompted the restoration of these unhappy 
and harmless prisoners to the husband and fa- 
ther who mourned their separation from him, 
and their cruel sufferings, with bitter grief. It 
is more probable, therefore, that policy, and a 
regard for his own aggrandizement, rather than 
compassion for the suffering, led him to honor 
his captive queens. It was a great glory tc 
him, in a martial point of view, to have such 
trophies of his victory in his train ; and, of 
course, the more highly he honored the person- 
ages, the more glorious the trophy appeared. 
Accordingly, Alexander did every thing in his 
power to magnify the importance of his royal 
captives, by the splendor of their retinue, and 
the pomp and pageantry with which he invest- 
ed their movements. 

A short time after leaving Tyre, on tho 
march eastward, Statira, the wife of Darius, 
v/as taken suddenly ill and died.^ The tidings 
were immediately brought to Alexander, and 
he repaired without delay to Sysigambis's tent. 

* It was the birth of an infant tlfat caused her death, ex 
hausted and worn down, as she doubtless was, by her c ip 
tivity and her sorrows. 

81 



192 Alexander the Great. [E.G. 331. 

Agony of Sysigambis. Grief of Darius. 

Sysigambis was the mother of Darius. She 
was in the greatest agony of grief. She was 
lying upon the floor of her tent, surrounded by 
the ladies of her court, and entirely overwhelm* 
ed with sorrow. Alexander did all in his powei 
to calm and comfort her. 

One of the officers of Queen Statira's house- 
hold^ made his escape from the camp immedi- 
ately after his mistress's death, and fled across 
the country to Darius, to carry him the heavy 
tidings. Darius was overwhelmed with afflic- 
tion. The officer, however, in farther inter- 
views, gave him such an account of the kind 
and respectful treatment which the ladies had 
received from Alexander, during all the time of 
their captivity, as greatly to relieve his mind, 
anr' to afford him a high degree of comfort and 
ccAsolation. He expressed a very strong sense 
of gratitude to Alexander for his generosity and 
kindness, and said that if his kingdom of Persia 
must be conquered, he sincerely wished that it 
might fall into the hands of such a conqueror a? 
Alexander. 

By looking at the map at the commencement 
of the volume, it will be seen that the Tigris 

* A eanuch, a sort of officer employed in Eastern nations 
in attendance upon ladies of high ranK. 



B.C.331.] The Great Victory. 193 

Alexander crosses tlie Euphrates. Darius crosses the Tigria 

and the Euphrates are parallel streams, flowing 
through the heart of the western part of Asia 
toward the southeast, and emptying into the 
Persian Gulf. The country between these two 
rivers, which was extremely populous and fer- 
tile, was called Mesopotamia. Darius had col- 
lected an immense army here. The various de- 
tachments j&lled all the plains of Mesopotamia. 
Alexander turned his course a little northward, 
intending to pass the River Euphrates at a fa- 
mous ancient crossing at Thapsacus, which may 
be seen upon the map. When he arrived at 
this place he found a small Persian army there. 
They, however, retired as he approached. Al- 
exander built tv7o bridges across the river, and 
passed his army safely over. 

In the mean time, Darius, with his enormous 
host, passed across the Tigris, and moved to- 
ward the northward, along the eastern side of 
the river. He had to cross the various branch* 
es of the Tigris as he advanced. At one of 
them, called the Lycus, w^hich may also be seen 
upon the map, there was a bridge. It took ths 
N^ast host which Darius had collected five days 
to pass this bridge. 

While Darius had been thus advancing to 
the northward into the latitude where he knew 
N 



194 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 331 

Alexander reaches the Tigris. He crosses the rivei 

that Alexander must cross the rivers, Aiexan 
der himself, and his small but compact and fear- 
less body of Grecian troops, were moving east- 
ward, toward the same region to which Darius's 
line of march was tending. Alexander at length 
reached the Tigris. He was obliged to ford this 
stream. The banks were steep and the current 
was rapid, and the men were in great danger of 
being swept away. To prevent this danger, 
the ranks, as they advanced, linked their arms 
together, so that each man might be sustained 
by his comrades. They held their shields above 
their heads to keep them from the water. Al- 
exander waded like the rest, though he kept ir 
front, and reached the bank before the others. 
Standing there, he indicated to the advancing 
column, by gesticulation, where to land, the 
noise of the water being too great to allow his 
voice to be heard. To see him standing there, 
safely landed, and with an expression of confi- 
dence and triumph in his attitude and air, 
awakened fresh energy in the heart of every 
soldier in the columns which were crossing the 
stream. 

Notwithstanding this encouragement, how- 
ever, the passage of the troops and the landing 
on the bank produced a scene of greet confusion 



B.C.331.] The Great Victory. 195 

Fording the river. The passage effected 

Many of the soldiers had tied up a portion of 
their clothes in bundles, which they held above 
their heads, together with their arms, as they 
waded along through the swift current of the 
stream. They, however, found it impossible tc 
carry these bundles, but had to abandon them 
at last in order to save themselves, as they 
staggered along through deep and rapid water, 
and over a concealed bottom of slippery stones. 
Thousands of these bundles, mingled with spears, 
darts, and every other sort of weapon that would 
float, were swept down by the current, to im- 
pede and embarrass the men who were passing 
below. 

At length, hov/ever, the men themselves suc- 
ceeded in getting over in safety, though a large 
quantity of arms and of clothing was lost. 
There was no enemy upon the bank to oppose 
them. Darius could not, in fact, well meet 
and oppose Alexander in his attempt to cross 
the river, because he could not determine at 
what point he would probably make the at* 
tempt, in season to concentrate so large an army 
to oppose him. Alexander's troops, being a 
comparatively small and compact body, and be- 
ing accustomed to move with great promptness 
and celerity, could easily evade any attempt oi 



196 Alexander the Great. [B.C 331 

Plan of Darius. The plain of Arbelg 

such an unwieldy mass of forces to oppose his 
crossing at any particular point upon the stream. 
At any rate, Darius did not make any such at- 
tempt, and Alexander had no difficulties to en- 
counter in crossing the Tigris other than the 
physical obstacles presented by the current of 
the stream. 

Darius's plan was, therefore, not to intercept 
Alexander on his march, but to choose some 
great and convenient battle-field, where he 
could collect his forces, and marshal them ad- 
vantageously and so await an attack there. 
He knew very well that his enemy would seek 
him out, wherever he was, and, consequently, 
that he might choose his position. He found 
such a field in an extensive plain at Guagame- 
la, not far from the city of Arbela. The spot 
has received historical immortality under the 
name of the plain of Arbela. 

Darius was several days in concentrating his 
vast armies upon this plain. He constructed 
encampments ; he leveled the inequalities which 
would interfere with the movements of his great 
bodies of cavalry ; he guarded the approaches, 
too, as much as possible. There is a little in- 
strument used in war called a caltrop,^ W 

* I^ receives its najaae from a kind of thistle called the caltrop 



B.C. 331.] The Great Victory. 197 

The caltrop. lis use in war 

consists of a small ball of iron, with several 
sharp points projecting from it one or two 
inches each way. If these instruments are 




The Caltrop. 

thrown upon the ground at random, one of the 
points must necessarily be upward, and the 
horses that tread upon them are lamed and dis- 
abled at once. Darius caused caltrops to be 
scattered in the grass and along the roads, 
wherever the army of Alexander would be like- 
ly to approach his troops on the field of battle. 
Alexander, having crossed the river, encamp- 
ed for a day or two on the banks, to rest and 
refresh, and to rearrange his army. "While 
here, the soldiers were one night thrown into 
consternation by an eclipse of the moon. When- 



198 Alexander the Great. [B.C. »*^31. 

Eclipse of the moon. Consternation of Alexander's army. 

ever an eclipse of the moon takes place, it is, 
of course, when the moon is full, so that the 
eclipse is always a sudden, and, among an ig- 
norant people, an unexpected waning of the orb 
in the height of its splendor ; and as such peo- 
ple know not the cause of the phenomenon, 
they are often extremely terrified. Alexander's 
soldiers were thrown into consternation by the 
eclipse. They considered it the manifestation 
of the displeasure of Heaven at their presump- 
tuous daring in crossing such rivers, and pene- 
trating to such a distance to invade the terri- 
tories of another king. 

In fact, the men were predisposed to fear. 
Having wandered to a vast distance from home^ 
having passed over such mountains and deserts, 
and now, at last, having crossed a deep and dan- 
gerous river, and thrown themselves into the 
immediate vicinity of a foe ten times as num.er- 
ous as themselves, it was natural that they 
should feel some misgivings. And when, at 
night, impressed w^ith the sense of solemnity 
which night always imparts to strange and 
novel scenes, they looked up to the bright round 
moon, pleased with the expression of cheerful- 
ness and companionship which beams always 
in her light, to find her suddenly waning, change 



B.C. 331.] The Great Victory. 199 

Emotions produced by an eclipse. Its sublimity. 

ing her form, withdrawing her bright beams, 
and looking down upon them with a lurid and 
murky light, it was not surprising that they felt 
an emotion of terror. In fact, th3re is always 
an element of terror in the emotion excited by 
looking upon an eclipse, which an instinctive 
feeling of the heart inspires. It invests the 
spectacle with a solemn grandeur. It holds the 
spectator, however cultivated and refined, in si- 
lence while he gazes at it. It mingles with a 
scientific appreciation of the vastness of the 
movements and magnitudes by which the effect 
is produced, and while the one occupies the in- 
tellect, the other impresses the soul. The mind 
that has lost, through its philosophy, the power 
of feeling this emotion of awe in such scenes, 
has sunk, not risen. Its possessor has made 
himself inferior, not superior, to the rest of his 
species, by having paralyzed one of his suscep- 
tibilities of pleasure. To him an eclipse is only 
curious and wonderful ; to others it is sublime. 
The soldiers of Alexander were extremely ter- 
rified. A great panic spread throughout the en- 
campment. Alexander himself, instead of at- 
tempting to allay their fears by reasoning, or 
treating them as of no importance, immediately 
gave the subject his most serious attention. lie 



200 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 331 

Measures taken by Alexander to allay the fears of the soldiers. 

called together the soothsayers, and directed therc 
to consult together, and let him know what this 
great phenomenon portended. This mere com- 
mitting of the subject to the attention of the 
soothsayers had a great effect among all the 
soldiers of the army. It calmed them. It 
chansfed their ao^itation and terror into a feel- 
ing of suspense, in awaiting the ansAver of the 
soothsayers, which was far less painful and dan- 
gerous ; and at length, when the answer came, 
it allayed their anxiety and fear altogether. 
The soothsayers said that the sun was on Al- 
exander's side, and the moon on that of the Per- 
sians, and that this sudden waning of her light 
foreshadowed the defeat and destruction which 
the Persians were about to undergo. The army 
were satisfied with this decision, and were in- 
spired with new confidence and ardor. It is 
often idle to attempt to oppose ignorance and 
absurdity by such feeble instruments as truth 
and reason, and the wisest managers of man- 
kind have generally been most successful when 
their plan has been to counteract one folly by 
means of the influence of another. 

Alexander's army consisted of about fifty 
thousand men, with the phalanx in the center. 
This army moved along down the eastern bank 



B.C.331.J The Great Victory. 201 

Alexander approaches the Persian army. Prepai'atioas for the battle; 

of the Tigris, the scouts pressing forward as far 
as possible in every direction in front of the main 
army, in order to get intelligence of the foe. It 
is in this way that two great armies feel after 
each other, as it were, like insects creeping over 
the ground, exploring the way before them with 
their antennce. At length, after three days' ad- 
vance, the scouts came in with intelligence of 
the enemy. Alexander pressed forward with a 
detachment of his army to meet them. They 
proved to be, however, not the main body of Da- 
rius's army, but only a single corps of a thousand 
men, in advance of the rest. They retreated 
as Alexander approached. He, however, suc- 
ceeded in capturing some horsemen, who gave 
the information that Darius had assembled his 
vast forces on the plain of Arbela, and was wait- 
ing there in readiness to give his advancing en- 
emy battle. 

Alexander halted his troops. He formed an 
encampment, and made arrangements for de- 
p3siting his baggage there. He lefreshed the 
men, examined and repaired their arms, and 
made the arrangements for battle. These op- 
erations consumed several days. At the end of 
that time, early one morning, long before day, 
the camp was in motion, and the columns, armed 



202 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 331 

Alexander surveys the Persian army. Council of officera 

and equipped for immediate contest, moved for- 
ward. 

They expected to have reached the camp of 
Darius at daybreak, but the distance was great- 
er than they had supposed. At length, howev- 
er, the Macedonians, in their march, came upon 
the brow of a range of hills, from which they 
looked down upon numberless and endless lines 
of infantry and cavalry, and ranges after ranges 
of tents, which filled the plain. Here the army 
paused while Alexander examined the field, 
studying for a long time, and with great atten- 
tion, the numbers and disposition of the enemy. 
They were four miles distant still, but the mur- 
muring sounds of their voices and movements 
came to the ears of the Macedonians through 
the calm autumnal air. 

Alexander called the leading officers together, 
and held a consultation on the question whether 
to march down and attack the Persians on the 
plain that night, or to wait till the next day. 
Parmenio was in favor of a night attack, in or-' 
der to surprise the enemy by coming upon them 
at an unexpected time. But Alexander said 
no. He was sure of victory. He had got hia 
enemies all before him ; they were fully in his 
power He would, therefore, take no advant- 



B.C. 331.] The Great Victory. 203 

Number of the armies. Alexander's addi'ess. 

age, but would attack them fairly and in open 
day, Alexander had fifty thousand men; the 
Persians were variously estimated between five 
hundred thousand and a million. There is some- 
thing sublime in the idea of such a pause, made 
by the Macedonian phalanx and its wings, on 
the slopes of the hills, suspending its attack upon 
ten times its number, to give the mighty mass 
of their enemies the chances of a fair and equal 
contest. 

Alexander made congratulatory addresses to 
his soldiers on the occasion of their having now 
at last before them, what they had so long toiled 
and labored to attain, the whole concentrated 
force of the Persian empire. They were now 
going to contend, not for single provinces and 
kingdoms, as heretofore, but for general empire ; 
and the victory which they were about to achieve 
would place them on the summit of human glo- 
ry. In all that he said on the subject, the un- 
questionable certainty of victory was assumed. 

Alexander completed his arrangements, and 
then retired to rest. He went to sleep — at least 
he appeared to do so. Early in the morning 
Parmenio arose, summoned the men to their 
posts, and arranged every thing for the march. 
He then went to Alexander's tent. Alexander 



204 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 331 

Parmenio and Alexander. Alexander's dress, 

was still asleep. He awoke him, and told him 
that all was ready. Parmenio expressed sur- 
prise at his sleeping so quietly at a time when 
such vast issues were at stake. '' You seem as 
calm," said he, ^' as if you had had the battle 
and gained the victory." " I have done so," 
said Alexander. ^'I consider the whole work 
done when we have gained access to Darius and 
his forces, and find him ready to give us battle." 
Alexander soon appeared at the head of his 
troops. Of course this day v/as one of the most 
important ones of his life, and one of the histo- 
rians of the time has preserved an account of 
his dress as he went into battle. He wore a 
short tunic, girt close around him, and over it 
a linen breast-plate, strongly quilted. The belt 
by which the tunic was held was embossed with 
figures of beautiful workmanship. This belt 
was a present to him from some of the people 
of the conquered countries through which he had 
passed, and it was very much admired. He 
had a helmet upon his head, of polished steel, 
with a neck piece, also of steel, ornamented with 
precious stones. His helmet was surmounted 
with a white plume. His sword, which was a 
present to him from the King of Cyprus, was 
very light and slender, and of the most perfect 



B.C. 331.] The Great Victory. 20-"! 

War elephants. The phalanx, 

fcsmper. He carried, also, a shield and a lance, 
made in the best possible manner for use, not 
for display. Thus his dress corresponded with 
the character of his action. It was simple, com- 
pact, and whatever of value it possessed consist- 
ed in those substantial excellences which would 
give the bearer the greatest efficiency on the 
field of battle. 

The Persians were accustomed to make use 
of elephants in their wars. They also had char- 
iots, with scythes placed at the axles, w^hich 
they were accustomed to drive among their en- 
emies and mow them down. Alexander resort- 
ed to none of these contrivances. There was 
the phalanx — the terrible phalanx— advancing 
irresistibly either in one body or in detachments, 
with columns of infantry and flying troops of 
horseman on the wings. Alexander relied sim- 
ply on the strength, the courage, the energy, 
and the calm and steady, but resistless ardor of 
his men, arranging them in simple combina- 
tions, and leading them forward directly to their 
work. 

The Macedonians cut their way through the 
mighty mass of their enemies with irresistible 
force. The elephants turned and fled. The 
foot soldiers seized the horses of some of the 



206 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 331 

Defeat of the Persians. Flight of Darius. 

scythe-armed chariots and cut the traces. In 
respect to others, they opened to the right and 
left and let them pass through, when they were 
easily captured by the men in the rear. In the 
mean time the phalanx pressed on, enjoying a 
great advantage in the level nature of the 
ground. The Persian troops were broken in 
upon and driven away wherever they were at- 
tacked. In a word, before night the whole 
mighty mass was scattering every where in con- 
fusion, except some hundreds of thousands left 
trampled upon and dead, or else writhing upon 
the ground, and groaning in their dying ago- 
nies. Darius himself fled. Alexander pursued 
him with a troop of horse as far as Arbela, 
which had been Darius's head-quarters, and 
where he had deposited immense treasures 
Darius had gone through and escaped when 
Alexander arrived at Arbela, but the city and 
the treasures fell into Alexander's hands. 

Although Alexander had been so completely 
victorious over his enemies on the day of battle, 
and had maintained his ground against them 
with such invincible power, he was, neverthe- 
less, a few days afterward, driven entirely off 
the field, and completely away from the region 
where the battle had been fought. "What the 



B.C.331.] The Great Victory. 207 

Alexander driven from the field. Maicli to Babylon 

living men, standing erect in arms, and full of 
martial vigor, could not do, was easily and ef- 
fectually accomplished by their dead bodies cor- 
rupting on the plain. The corpses of three 
hundred thousand men, and an equal bulk of 
the bodies of elephants and horses, was too 
enormous a mass to be buried. It had to be 
abandoned ; and the horrible effluvia and pesti- 
lence which it emitted drove all the inhabitants 
of the country away. Alexander marched his 
troops rapidly off the ground, leaving, as the di- 
rect result of the battle, a wide extent of coun 
try depopulated and desolate, with this vast 
mass of putrefaction and pestilence reigning in 
awful silence and solitude in the midst of it. 

Alexander went to Babylon. The governor 
of the city prepared to receive him as a con- 
queror. The people came out in throngs to 
meet him, and all the avenues of approach were 
crowded with spectators. All the city walls, 
too, were covered with men and women, assem- 
bled to witness the scene. As for Alexander 
himself, he was filled with pride and pleasure at 
thus arriving at the full accomplishment of his 
earliest and long-cherished dreams of glory. 

The great store-house of the royal treasures 
of Persia was at Susa, a strong city east nf Bab- 
32 



208 Alexander the Great. [B.C 331. 

Surrender of Susa. Plunder of the palace. 

ylon. Susa was the winter residence of the Per- 
sian kings, as Ecbatana, further north, among 
the mountains, was their summer residence. 
There was a magnificent palace and a very 
strong citadel at Susa, and the treasures were! 
kept in the citadel. It is said that in times of 
peace the Persian monarchs had been accus- 
tomed to collect coin, melt it down, and cast the 
gold in earthen jars. The jars were afterward 
broken off from the gold, leaving the bullion in 
the form of the interior of the jars. An enor- 
mous amount of gold and silver, and of other 
treasures, had been thus collected. Alexander 
was aware of this depository before he advanced 
to meet Darius, and, on the day of the battle 
of Arbela, as soon as the victory was decided, 
he sent an officer from the very field to summon 
Susa to surrender. They obeyed the summons, 
and Alexander, soon after his great public en- 
trance into Babylon, marched to Susa, and took 
possession of the vast stores of wealth accumti- 
jated there. The amount was enormous, \s th 
in quantity and value, and the seizing of it was 
a very magnificent act of plunder. In fact, it 
is probable that Alexander's slaughter of the 
Persian army at Arbela, and subsequent spoli* 
ation of Susa, constitute, taken together, the 



B.C.331.] The Great Victory. 209 

Wholesale robbery and murder. Immeiise treasures. 

most gigantic case of murder and robbery which 
was ever committed by man ; so that, in per- 
forming these deeds, the great hero attained at 
last to the glory of having perpetrated the grand* 
est and most imposing of all human crimes 
That these deeds were really crimes there can 
be no doubt, when we consider tha.t Alexander 
did not pretend to have any other motive in this 
invasion than love of conquest, which is, in oth- 
er words, love of violence and plunder. They 
are only technically shielded from being called 
crimes by the fact that the earth has no laws 
and no tribunals high enough to condemn such 
enormous burglaries as that of one quarter of 
the globe breaking violently and murderously in 
upon and robbing the other. 

Besides the treasures, Alexander found alsfj 
at Susa a number of trophies which had been 
brought by Xerxes from Greece ; for Xerxes 
had invaded Greece some hundred years before 
xA^lexander's day, and had brought to Susa the 
spoils and the trophies of his victories. Alex:- 
ander sent them all back to Greece again. 

From Susa the conqueror moved on to Per 

sepolis, the great Persian capital. On his march 

he had to pass through a defile of the mount- 

ains. The mountaineers had been accustomed 

O 



210 Alexander the Great, [B.C.331 

Pass of Susa. The mountaineerf 

to exact tribute here of all who passed, having 
a sort of right, derived from ancient usage, to 
the payment of a toll. They sent to Alexan^ 
der when they heard that he was approaching, 
and informed him that he could not pass with 
his army without paying the customary toll. 
Alexander sent back word that he would meet 
them at the pass, and give them their due. 

They understood this, and prepared to defend 
the pass. Some Persian troops joined them 
They built walls and barricades across the nar- 
row passages. They collected great stones on 
the brinks of precipices, and on the declivities 
of the mountains, to roll down upon the heads 
of their enemies. By these and every other 
means they attempted to stop Alexander's pas- 
sage. But he had contrived to send detach- 
ments around by circuitous and precipitous 
paths, which even the mountaineers had deem- 
ed impracticable, and thus attack his enemies 
suddenly and unexpectedly from above their 
own positions. As usual, his plan succeeded. 
The mountaineers were driven away, and the 
conqueror advanced toward the great Persiai] 
capital. 



B.C. 330.] Death of Darius. 213 

March to Persepolis. Reckless cruelty 



Chapter X. 
The Death of Darius. 

ALEXANDER'S march from Susa to Per- 
sepolis was less a march than a triumphal 
progress. He felt the pride and elation so natu- 
rally resulting from success very strongly. The 
moderation and forbearance which had charac- 
terized him in his earlier years, gradually disap- 
peared as he became great and powerful. He 
was intoxicated with his success. He became 
haughty, vain, capricious, and cruel. As he ap- 
proached Persepolis, he conceived the idea that, 
as this city was the capital and center of the 
Persian monarchy, and, as such, the point from 
which had emanated all the Persian hostility to 
Greece, he owed it some signal retribution. Ac- 
cordingly, although the inhabitants made no op- 
position to his entrance, he marched in with the 
phalanx formed, and gave the soldiers liberty to 
kill and plunder as they pleased. 

There was another very striking instance of 
the capricious recklessness now beginning to ap- 
pear in Alexander's character, which occurred 



214 Alexander the Gkeat. [B.C. 333 

The banquet. Thais proposes to burn the Persian palace 

soon after he had taken possession of Persepolis. 
He was giving a great banquet to his friends, 
the officers of the army, and to Persians of dis- 
tinction among those who had submitted to him. 
There was, among other women at this banquet, 
a very beautiful and accomplished female named 
Thais. Alexander made her his favorite and 
companion, though she was not his wife. Thais 
did all in her power to captivate and please Al- 
exander during the feast by her vivacity, hei 
wit, her adroit attentions to him, and the dis- 
play of her charms, and at length, when he him- 
self, as well as the other guests, were excited 
with wine, she asked him to allow her to have 
the pleasure of going herself and setting fire, 
with her own hands, to the great palace of the 
Persian kings in the city. Thais was a native 
of Attica in Greece, a kingdom of which Ath- 
ens was the capital. Xerxes, who had built the 
great palace of Persepolis, had formerly invaded 
Greece and had burned Athens, and now Thais 
desired to burn his palace in Persepolis, to grat- 
ify her revenge, by making, of its conflagration, 
an evening spectacle to entertain the Macedo- 
nian party after their supper. Alexander agreed 
to the proposal, and the whole company moved 
forward. Taking the torches from the banquet 



B.C.330J Death of Darius. 215 

Conflagration of the palace. Sublimity of the scene. 



ing hallsj they sallied forth, alarming the city 
with their shouts, and with the flashing of the 
lights they bore. The plan of Thais was car- 
ried fully into effect, every half-intoxicated guest 
assisting, by putting fire to the immense pile 
wherever they could get access to it. They per- 
formed the barbarous deed with shouts of ven- 
geance and exultation. 

There is, however, something very solemn 
and awful in a great conflagration at night, and 
very few incendiaries can gaze upon the fury of 
the lurid and frightful flames which they have 
caused to ascend without some misgivings and 
some remorse. Alexander was sobered by the 
grand and sublime, but terrible spectacle. He 
was awed by it. He repented. He ordered the 
fire to be extinguished ; but it was too late. 
The palace was destroyed, and one new blot, 
which has never since been effaced, was cast 
upon Alexander's character and fame. 

And yet, notwithstanding these increasing 
proofs of pride and cruelty, which were begin- 
ning to be developed, Alexander still preserved 
some of the early traits of character which had 
made him so great a favorite in the commence- 
ment of his career. He loved his mother^ and 
r^ent her presents continuallv from the treasures 



216 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 330 

Olympias. Her letters to Alexander 

which were falling all the time into his posses- 
sion. She was a woman of a proud, imperious, 
and ungovernable character, and she made An- 
tipater, whom Alexander had left in command 
in Macedon, infinite trouble. She wanted to 
exercise the powers of government herself, and 
was continually urging this. Alexander would 
not comply with these wishes, but he paid her 
personally every attention in his power, and 
bore all her invectives and reproaches with great 
patience and good humor. At one time he re- 
ceived a long letter from Antipater, full of com- 
plaints against her ; but Alexander, after read- 
ing it, said that they were heavy charges it was 
true, but that a single one of his mother's tears 
would outweigh ten thousand such accusations. 
Olympias used to write very frequently to 
Alexander, and in these letters she would criti- 
cise and discuss his proceedings, and make com- 
ments upon the characters and actions of his 
generals. Alexander kept these letters very se- 
cret, never showing them to any one. One day, 
however, when he was reading one of these let- 
ters, Hephgestion, the personal friend and com« 
panion w^ho has been already several times men- 
tioned, came up, half playfully, and began to 
look over his shoulder. Alexander went on, al* 



B.C. 330.] Death of Darius. 217 



Bysigambis. Alexander's kindness to her 

lowing him to read, and then, when the letter 
was finished he took the signet ring from his 
finger and pressed it upon Hephaestion's lips, a 
c^ignal for silence and secrecy. 

Alexander was very kind to Sysigambis, the 
mother of Darius, and also to Darius's children. 
He woald not give these unhappy captives their 
liberty, but in every other respect he treated 
them with the greatest possible kindness and 
consideration. He called Sysigambis mother, 
loaded her w4th presents — presents, it is true, 
which he had plundered from her son, but to 
which it was considered, in those days, that he 
had acquired a just and perfect title. "When he 
reached Susa, he established Sysigambis and 
the children there in great state. This had been 
their usual residence in most seasons of the year, 
when not at Persepolis, so that here they were, 
as it were, at home. Ecbatana^ was, as has 
been already mentioned, further north, among 
the mountains. After the battle of Arbela, 
while Alexander marched to Babylon and to 
Susa, Darius had fled to Ecbatana, and was now 
there, his family being thus at one of the royal 
palaces under the command of the conqueror, 
and he himself independent, but insecure, in the 

* The modern Ispahan. 



218 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 330 

Darius at Ecbatana. His speech to his army 

other. He had with him about forty thousand 
men, who still remained faithful to his fallen 
fortunes. Among these were several thousand 
Greeks, whom he had collected in Asia Minor 
and other Grecian countries, and whom he had 
attached to his service by means of pay. 

He called the officers of his army together, 
and explained to them the determination that 
he had come to in respect to his future move- 
ments. '' A large part of those," said he, '' who 
formerly served as officers of my government, 
have abandoned me in my adversity, and gone 
over to Alexander's side. They have surren- 
dered to him the towns, and citadels, and prov- 
inces which I intrusted to their fidelity. You 
alone remain faithful and true. As for myself, 
I might yield to the conqueror, and have him 
assign to me some province or kingdom to gov- 
ern as his subordinate ; but I will never sub- 
mit to such a degradation. I can die in the 
struggle, but never will yield. I will wear no 
crown which another puts upon my brow, nor 
give up my right to reign over the empire of 
my ancestors till I give up my life. If you 
agree with me in this determination, let us act 
energetically upon it. We have it in our pow 
er to terminate the injuries we are suiforing, or 
else to avenge them." 



B.C. 330.J Death of Darius. 219 

Conspiracy against Darius. Bessus and his confederates. 

The army responded most cordially to this 
appeal. They were ready, they said, to follow 
him wherever he should lead. All this appar- 
ent enthusiasm, however, was very delusive and 
unsubstantial. A general named Bessus, com- 
bining with some other officers in the army, con- 
ceived the plan of seizing Darius and making 
him a prisoner, and then taking command of 
the army himself. If Alexander should pursue 
him, and be likely to overtake and conquer him, 
he then thought that, by giving up Darius as a 
prisoner, he could stipulate for liberty and safe- 
ty, and perhaps great rewards, both for himself 
and for those who acted with him. If, on the 
other hand, they should succeed in increasing 
their own forces so as to make head against Al- 
exander, and finally to drive him away, then 
Bessus was to usurp the throne, and dispose of 
Darius by assassinating him, or imprisoning 
him for life in some remote and solitary castle. 

Bessus communicated his plans, very cau- 
tiously at first, to the leading officers of the 
army. The Greek soldiers were not included 
in the plot. They, however, heard and saw 
enough to lead them to suspect wliat was in 
preparation. They warned Darius, and urged 
him to rely upon them more than he had done ; 



220 Alexander the Great [B.C. 330 

AdvanO'S of Alexander. Retreat of Darius. The Caspian Gates. 

to make them his body-guard, and to pitch his 
tent in their part of the encampment. But Da- 
rius declined these proposals. He would not, 
he said, distrust and abandon his countrymen, 
who were his natural protectors, and put him- 
self in the hands of strangers. He would not 
betray and desert his friends in anticipation of 
their deserting and betraying him. 

In the mean time, as Alexander advanced to- 
ward Ecbatana, Darius and his forces retreated 
from it toward the eastward, through the great 
tract of country lying south of the Caspian Sea. 
There is a mountainous region here, with a de- 
file traversing it, through which it would be 
necessary for Darius to pass. This defile was 
called the Caspian Gates,^ the name referring 
to rocks on each side. The marching of an 
army through a narrow and dangerous defile 
like this always causes detention and delay, and 
Alexander hastened forward in hopes to over- 
take Darius before he should reach it. He ad- 
vanced with such speed that only the strongest 
and most robust of his army could keep up. 
Thousands, worn out with exertion and toil, 
were left behind, and many of the horses sank 
Jown by the road side, exhausted with heat and 

* Pylcs Caspice on the map, which means the Caspian Gat<3& 



B.C. 330.] Death of Darius. 221 

Pursuit of Darius. Foraging parties 

fatigue, to die. Alexander pressed desperately 
on with all who were able to follow. 

It was all in vain, however ; it was too late 
when he arrived at the pass. Darius had gone 
through with all his army. Alexander stopped 
to rest his men, and to allow time for those be- 
hind to come up. He then went on for a couple 
of days, when he encamped, in order to send out 
foraging parties — that is to say, small detach- 
ments, dispatched to explore the surrounding 
country in search of grain and other food for the 
horses. Food for the horses of an army being 
too bulky to be transported far, has to be col- 
lected day by day from the neighborhood of the 
line of march. 

While halting for these foraging parties to 
return, a Persian nobleman came into the camp, 
and informed Alexander that Darius and the 
forces accompanying him were encamped about 
two days' march in advance, but that Bessus 
was in command — the conspiracy having been 
successful, and Darius having been deposed and 
made a prisoner. The Greeks, who had ad 
hered to their fidelity, finding that all the army 
were combined against them, and that they 
were not strong enough to resist, had abandon- 
ed tlie Persian camp, and had retired to the 



222 Alexander the Great. [B.C. ^30. 

The pursuit continued. Alexander stops to rest his anny, 

mountains, where they were awaiting the re- 
sult. 

Alexander determined to set forward imme- 
diately in pursuit of Bessus and his prisoner 
He did not wait for the return of the foraging 
parties. He selected the ablest and most act- 
ive, both of foot soldiers and horsemen, ordered 
them to take two days' provisions, and then set 
forth with them that very evening. The party 
pressed on all that night, and the next day till 
noon. They halted till evening, and then set 
forth again. Very early the next morning they 
arrived at the encampment which the Persian 
nobleman had described. They found the re- 
mains of the camp-fires, and all the marks usu- 
ally left upon a spot which has been used as the 
bivouac of an army. The army itself, however, 
was gone. 

The pursuers were now too much fatigued to 
go any further without rest. Alexander remain* 
ed here, accordingly, through the day, to give 
his men and his horses refreshment and reposr. 
That night they set forward again, and the next 
day at noon they arrived at another encamp- 
ment of the Persians, which they had left scarce- 
ly twenty-four hours before. The officers of Al- 
exander's army were excited and animated in 



B.C. 330.] Death of Darius 223 

Want of water. Disregarded by Alexander. 

the highest degree, as they found themselves 
thus drawing so near to the great object of theii 
pursuit. They were ready for any exertions, 
any privation and fatigue, any measures, how* 
ever extraordmary, to accomplish their end. 

Alexander inquired of the inhabitants of the 
place whether there were not some shorter road 
than the one along which the enemy were mov- 
ing. There was one cross-road, but it led 
through a desolate and desert tract of land, des- 
titute of water. In the march of an army, as 
the men are always heavdy loaded with arms 
and provisions, and water can not be carried, it 
is always considered essential to choose routes 
w^hicli will furnish supplies of water by the way. 
Alexander, however, disregarded this considera- 
tion here, and prepared at once to push into the 
cross-road with a small detachment. He had 
been now tvv^o years advancing from Macedon 
into the heart of Asia, always in quest of Da- 
rius as his great opponent and enemy. He had 
conquered his armies, taken his cities, plunder- 
ed his palaces, and made himself master of his 
whole realm. Still, so long as Darius himself 
remained at liberty and in the field, no victories 
could be considered as complete. To capture 
Darius himself would be the last and crowniug 



224 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 330 

The pursuit grows more exciting. Guides employed 

act of his conquest. lie had now been pursu- 
ing him for eighteen hundred miles, advancing 
slowly from province to province, and from king- 
dom to kingdom. During all this time the 
strength of his flying foe had been wasting 
away. His armies had been broken up, hia 
courage and hope had gradually failed, while 
the animation and hope of the pursuer had been 
gathering fresh and increasing strength from his 
successes, and were excited to wild enthusiasm 
now, as the hour for the final consummation of 
all his desires seemed to be drawing nigh. 

Guides were ordered to be furnished by the 
inhabitants, to show the detachment the way 
across the solitary and desert country. The 
detachment was to consist of horsemen entirely, 
that they might advance with the utmost celer- 
ity. To get as efficient a corps as possible, Al- 
exander dismounted five hundred of the cavalry, 
and gave their horses to five hundred men— offi- 
cers and others — selected for their strength and 
courage from among the foot soldiers. All were 
ambitious of being designated for this service. 
Besides the honor of being so selected, there 
was an intense excitement, as usual toward the 
c)ose of a chase, to arrive at the end. 

This body of horsemen were ready to set out 



B.C.330.] Death of Darius. 225 

llie Peisians overtaken Murder of Dariia. 

in the evening. Alexander took the command, 
and, following the guides, they trotted off in the 
direction which the guides indicated. They 
traveled all night. When the day dawned, they 
saw, from an elevation to which they had at- 
tained, the body of the Persian troops moving 
at a short distance before them, foot soldiers, 
chariots, and horsemen pressing on together in 
great confusion and disorder. 

As soon as Bessus and his company found 
that their pursuers were close upon them, they 
attempted at first to hurry forward, in the vain 
hope of still effecting their escape. Darius was 
in a chariot. They urged this chariot on, but 
it moved heavily. Then they concluded to aban- 
don it, and they called upon Darius to mount 
a horse and ride off with them, leaving the rest 
of the army and the baggage to its fate. But 
Darius refused. He said he would rather trust 
himself in the hands of Alexander than in those 
of such traitors as they. Rendered desperate 
by their situation, and exasperated by this re- 
ply, Bessus and his confederates thrust their 
spears into Darius's body, as he sat in his char- 
iot, and then galloped away. They divided into 
different parties, each taking a different road. 
Their object in doing this was to increase their 
P 



226 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 330 

Sufferings of Darius. Treachery cf frienda 

chances of escape by confusing Alexander in his 
plans for pursuing them. Alexander pressed 
on toward the ground which the enemy were 
abandoning, and sent off separate detachments 
after the various divisions of the flying army. 

In the mean time Darius rem.ained in his 
chariot wounded and bleeding. He was worn 
out and exhausted, both in body and mind, by 
his complicated sufferings and sorrows. His 
kingdom lost ; his family in captivity ; his be- 
loved wife in the grave, where the sorrows and 
sufferings of separation from her husband had 
borne her ; his cities sacked ; his palaces and 
treasures plundered ; and now he himself, in the 
last hour of his extremity, abandoned and be- 
trayed by all in whom he had placed his confi- 
dence and trust, his heart sunk within him in 
despair. At such a time the soul turns from 
traitorous friends to an open foe with something 
like a feeling of confidence and attachment. Da- 
rius's exasperation against Bessus was so in- 
tense, that his hostility to Alexander became a 
species of friendship in comparison. He felt 
that Alexander was a sovereign like himself, 
and would have some sympathy and fellow-feel- 
ing for a sovereign's misfortunes. He thought, 
too, of his mother, his wife, and his children, and 



BC.330.] Death of Darius. 227 



Darius found. Sufferings from thii-st 

the kindness with which Alexander had treated 
them went to his heart. He lay there, accord- 
mgly, faint and bleeding in his chariot, and look- 
ing for the coming of Alexander as for that of 
a protector and friend, the only one to whom he 
could now look for any relief in the extremity 
of his distress. 

The Macedonians searched about in various 
places, thinking it possible that in the sudden 
dispersion of the enemy Darius might have been 
left behind. At last the chariot in which he was 
lying was found. Darius was in it, pierced with 
spears. The floor of the chariot was covered 
with blood. They raised him a little, and he 
spoke. He called for water. 

Men wounded and dying on the field of bat- 
tle are tormented always with an insatiable and 
intolerable thirst, the manifestations of which 
constitute one of the greatest horrors of the 
scene. They cry piteously to all who pass to 
bring them water, or else to kill them. They 
crawl along the ground to get at the canteens 
of their dead companions, in hopes to find, re- 
maining in them, some drops to drink ; and if 
there is a little brook meandering through the 
battle-field, its bed gets filled and choked up 
with the bodies of those who crawled there, in 



228 Alexander the Great. [B.C. o80. 

Darius calls for water. The interpreter. 

their agony, to quench their horrible thirst, and 
die. Darius was suiTering this thirst. It bore 
down and silenced, for the time, every other suf- 
fering, so that his first cry, when his enemies 
came around him with shouts of exultation, was 
not for his life, not for mercy, not for relief from 
the pain and anguish of his wounds — he begged 
them to give him some water. 

He spoke through an interpreter. The inter- 
preter was a Persian prisoner whom the Mace- 
donian army had taken some time before, and 
who had learned the Greek language in the 
Macedonian camp. Anticipating some occasion 
for his services, they had brought him with 
them now, and it was through him that Darius 
called for water. A Macedonian soldier went 
immediately to get some. Others hurried away 
in search of Alexander, to bring him to the spot 
where the great object of his hostility, and of 
his long and protracted pursuit, was dying. 

Darius received the drink. He then said that 
he was extremely glad that they had an inter- 
preter with them, who could understand him, 
and bear his message to Alexander. He had 
been afraid that he should have had to die with- 
out being able to communicate what he had to 
say. '^Tcll Alexander," said he, then, ^'that 



B.C. 330.] De-itii of Darius. 229 

Darius's message to Alexander. A Meeting scene. 

I feel under the strongest obligations to him, 
which I can now never repay, for his kindness 
to my wife, my mother, and my children. He 
not only spared their lives, but treated them 
with the greatest consideration and care, and 
did all in his power to make them happy. The 
last feeling in my heart is gratitude to him for 
these favors. I hope now that he will go on 
prosperously, and finish his conquests as tri- 
umphantly as he has begun them." He would 
have made one last request, he added, if he had 
thought it necessary, and that was, that Alex- 
aijder would pursue the traitor Bessus, and 
avenge the murder he had committed; but he 
was sure that Alexander would do this of his 
own accord, as the punishment of snch treach- 
ery was an object of common interest for every 
king. 

Darius then took Polystratus, the Macedo- 
nian who had brought him the water, by the 
hand, saying, '' Give Alexander thy hand as I 
now give thee mine ; it is the pledge of my 
gratitude and affection." 

Darius was too weak to say much more, 
They gathered around him, endeavoring to sus- 
tain his strength until Alexander should arrive ; 
but it was all in vain. He sank gradually, and 



230 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 330 

Alexander's grief at Darius's death. He sends the body to Sysigambia 

soon ceased to breathe. Alexander came up a 
few minutes after all was over. He was at 
first shocked at the spectacle before him, and 
then overwhelmed with grief. He wept bitter- 
ly. Some compunctions of conscience may have 
visited his heart at seeing thus before him the 
ruin he had made. Darius had never injured 
him or done him any wrong, and yet here he 
lay, hunted to death by a persevering and re- 
lentless hostility, for which his conqueror had 
no excuse but his innate love of dominion over 
his fellow-men. Alexander spread his own mil- 
itary cloak over the dead body. He immedi- 
ately made arrangements for having the body 
embalmed, and then sent it to Susa, for Sysi- 
gambis, in a very costly coffin, and with a pro- 
cession of royal magnificence. He sent it to 
her that she might have the satisfaction of see- 
ing it deposited in the tombs of the Persian 
kings. What a present ! The killer of a son 
sending the dead body, in a splendid coffin, to 
the mother, as a token of respectful regard ! 

Alexander pressed on to the northward and 
eastward in pursuit of Bessus, who had sc^on 
collected the scattered remains of his army, and 
was doing his utmost to get into a posture of 
defense. He did not, howevei, overtake him till 



B.C. 330.] Death of Darius. 231 

Crossing the Oxus. Capture of the traitor Bessus. 

he had crossed the Oxus, a large river which 
will be found upon the map, flowing to the 
northward and westward into the Caspian Sea. 
He had great difficulty in crossing this river, as 
it was too deep to be forded, and the banks and 
bottom were so sandy and yielding that he could 
not make the foundations of bridges stand. He 
accordingly made floats and rafts, which were 
supported by skins made buoyant by inflation, 
or by being stufled with straw and hay. After 
getting his army, which had been in the mean 
time greatly re-enforced and strengthened, across 
this river, he moved en. The generals under 
Bessus, finding all hope of escape failing them, 
resolved on betraying him as he had betrayed 
his commander. They sent word to Alexander 
that if he would send forward a small force 
where they should indicate, they would give up 
Bessus to his hands. Alexander did so, intrust- 
ing the command to an officer named Ptolemy. 
Ptolemy found Bessus in a small walled town 
whither he had fled for refuge, and easily took 
him prisoner. He sent back word to Alexander 
that Bessus was at his disposal, and asked for 
orders. The answer was, ''Put a rope around 
bis neck and send him to me." 

When the wretched prisoner was brouglit 



2o2 Alexander the Great [B.C. 330 



Muril<:.tl^»n of Bessus. He is sei.t to Sysigambia 

into .Vlexander's presence, Alexander demand- 
ed of him how he could have been so base as to 
have seized, bound, and at last murdered hia 
kinsman and benefactor. It is a curious in- 
stance in proof of the permanence and stability 
of the great characteristics of human nature, 
through all the changes of civilization and lapses 
of time, that Bessus gave the same answer that 
wrong-doers almost always give when brought 
to account for their wrongs. He laid the fault 
upon his accomplices and friends. It was not 
his act, it was theirs. 

Alexander ordered him to be publicly scourg- 
ed ; then he caused his face to be mutilated in 
a manner customary in those days, when a ty- 
rant wished to stamp upon his victim a perpet- 
ual mark of infamy. In this condition, and 
with a mind in an agony of suspense and fear 
at the thought of worse tortures which he knew 
were to come, Alexander sent him as a second 
present to Sysigambis, to be dealt with, at Susa, 
as her revenge might direct. She inflicted upon 
him the most extreme tortures, and finally, 
when satiated with the pleasure of seeing him 
suffer, the story is that they chose four very 
elastic trees, growing at a little distance from 
each other, and bent down the tops of them to. 



B.C. 330.] Death of Darius. 233 

Terrible punishment of Bessus. 

ward the central point between them. They 
fastened the exhausted and dying Bessus to 
these trees, one limb of his body to each, and 
then releasing the stems from their confinement, 
they flew upward, tearing the body asunder, 
each holding its own dissevered portion, as if in 
triumph, far over the heads of the multitude 
assembled to witness the spectacle. 



i^34 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 329 

Alexander at the summit of his ambition. Sad chanares 



Chapter XI. 
Deterioration of Character. 

ALEXANDER was now twenty-six years 
of age. He had accomplished fully the 
great objects which had been the aim of his am- 
bition. Darius was dead, and he was himself 
the undisputed master of all western Asia. His 
wealth was almost boundless. His power was 
supreme over what was, in his view, the whole 
known world. But, during the process of ris- 
ing to this ascendency, his character was sadly 
changed. He lost the simplicity, the temper- 
ance, the moderation, and the sense of justice 
which characterized his early years. He adopt- 
ed the dress and the luxurious manners of the 
Persians. He lived in the palaces of the Per- 
sian kings, imitating all their state and splen- 
dor. He became very fond of convivial enter- 
tainments and of wine, and often drank to ex- 
cess. He provided himself a seraglio of three 
hundred and sixty young females, in whose com- 
pany he spent his time, giving himself up to ev- 
ery form of effeminacy and dissipation. In a 



B.C.829.J Change of Character. 235 

Alexander becomes dissipated. His officers become estranged 

word, he was no longer the same man. The de 
cision, the energy of character, the steady pur 
suit of great ends by prudence, forethought, 
patient effort, and self-denial, all disappeared; 
nothing now seemed to mterest him but ban- 
quets, carousals, parties of pleasure, and whole 
days and nights spent in dissipation and vice. 

This state of things was a great cause of mor- 
tification and chas^rin to the officers of his armv. 
Many of them were older than himself, and bet- 
ter able to resist these temptations to luxury, 
effeminacy, and vice. They therefore remain- 
ed firm in their original simplicity and integrity, 
and after some respectful but ineffectual remon- 
strances, they stood aloof, alienated from their 
commander in heart, and condemning very 
strongly, among themselves, his wickedness and 
folly. 

On the other hand, many of the younger of- 
ficers followed Alexander's example, and became 
as vain, as irregular, and as fond of vicious in- 
dulgence as he. But then, though they joined 
him in his pleasures, there was no strong bond 
of union between him and them. The tie which 
binds mere companions in pleasure together is 
always very slight and frail. Thus Alexander 
gradually lost the confidence and affection of his 



236 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 329. 

Character of Parmenio. His services to Alexander. 

old friends, and gained no new ones. His ofli- 
cors either disapproved his conductj and were 
distant and cold, or else joined him in his dissi- 
pation and vice, without feeling any real respect 
for his character, or being bound to him by any 
principle of fidelity. 

Parmenio and his son Philotas were, respect- 
ively, striking examples of these two kinds of 
character. Parmenio was an old general, now 
considerably advanced in life. He had served, 
as has already been stated, under Philip, Alex- 
ander's father, and had acquired great experi- 
ence and great fame before Alexander succeed- 
ed to the throne. During the whole of Alexan- 
der's career Parmenio had been his principal 
lieutenant general, and he had always placed 
his greatest reliance upon him in all trying emer- 
gencies. He was cool, calm, intrepid, sagacious. 
He held Alexander back from many rash enter- 
prises, and was the efficient means of his ac- 
complishing most of his plans. It is the custom 
among all nations to give kings the glory of alJ 
that is effected by their generals and officers ; 
and the writers of those days would, of course, 
in narrating the exploits of the Macedonian 
army, exaggerate the share which Alexander 
had in their performances, and underrate those 



B.C. 329.] Change of Character. 237 

Parmenio's eon, Philotas. His dissolute character 

of Parrnenio. But in modern times, many im- 
partial readers, in reviewing calmly these events . 
think that there is reason to doubt whether Al ■ 
exander, if he had set out on his great expedi- 
tion without Parrnenio, would have succeeded 
at all. 

Philotas was the son of Parmenio, but he 
was of a very different character. The differ- 
ence was one which is very often, in all ages of 
the world, to be observed between those who 
inherit greatness and those who acquire it for 
themselves. We see the same analogy reign- 
ing at the present day, when the sons of the 
wealthy, who are born to fortune, substitute 
pride, and arrogance, and vicious self-indulgence 
and waste for the modesty, and prudence, and 
virtue of their sires, by means of which the for- 
tune was acquired. Philotas v/as proud, boast- 
ful, extravagant, and addicted, like Alexander 
his master, to every species of indulgence and 
dissipation. He was universally hated. His 
father, out of patience wdth his haughty airs, 
his boastmgs, and his pomp and parade, advised 
him, one day, to ''make himself less." But 
Parmenio's prudent advice to his son was thrown 
away. Philotas spoke of himself as Alexander's 
great reliance. '' What would Philip have been 



238 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 329 

Conspiracies. Plot of Dyninua 

or have done," said he, " without my father Par 
menio ? and what would Alexander have been, 
or have done, without me ?" These things w^ere 
reported to Alexander, and thus the mind of 
each was filled with suspicion, fear, and hatred 
toward the other. 

Courts and camps are always the scenes of 
conspiracy and treason, and Alexander was con- 
tinually hearing of conspiracies and plots form- 
ed against him. The strong sentiment of love 
and devotion with which he inspired all around 
him at the commencement of his career, was 
now gone, and his generals and officers were 
continually planning schemes to depose him 
from the power which he seemed no longer to 
have the energy to wield ; or, at least, Alexan- 
der was continually suspecting that such plans 
were formed, and he was kept in a continual 
state of uneasiness and anxiety in discovering 
and punishing them. 

At last a conspiracy occurred in which Phi- 
Iotas was implicated. Alexander was informed 
one day that a plot had been formed to depose 
and destroy him ; that Philotas had been made 
acquainted with it by a friend of Alexander's, 
in order that he might make it known to the 
king ; that he had neglected to do so, thus mak. 



B.C. 329.] Change of Character. 239 

Dymnus desti'oys himself. Pbilotas suspected. 

ing it probable that he was himself in league 
with the conspirators. Alexander was informed 
that the leader and originator of this conspiracy 
was one of his generals named Dymnus. 

He immediately sent an officer to Dymnus to 
summon him into his presence. Dymnus ap- 
peared to be struck with consternation at this 
summons. Instead of obeying it, he drew his 
sword, thrust it into his own heart, and fell 
dead upon the ground. 

Alexander then sent for Philotas, and asked 
him if it was indeed true that he had been in- 
formed of this conspiracy, and had neglected to 
make it known. 

Philotas replied that he had been told that 
such a plot was formed, but that he did not be- 
lieve it ; that such stories were continually in- 
vented by the malice of evil-disposed men, and 
that he had not considered the report which 
came to his ears as worthy of any attention. 
He was, however, now convinced, by the terror 
which Dymnus had manifested, and by his sui- 
cide, that all was true, and he asked Alexan- 
der's pardon for not having taken immediate 
measures for communicating promptly the in- 
formation he had received. 

Alex"ander gave him his hand, said that he was 
34 



240 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 329. 

The council of officers. Philotas accused. 

convinced that he was innocent, and had acted 
as he did from disbelief in the existence of thtt 
conspiracy, and not from any guilty participa- 
tion in it. So Philotas went away to his tent. 

Alexander, however, did not drop the subject 
here. He called a council of his ablest and best 
friends and advisers, consisting of the principal 
officers of his army, and laid the facts before 
them. They came to a different conclusion from 
his in respect to the guilt of Philotas. They 
believed him implicated in the crime, and de- 
manded his trial. Trial in such a case, in those 
days, meant putting the accused to the torture, 
with a view of forcing him to confess his guilt 

Alexander yielded to this proposal. Perhaps 
he had secretly instigated it. The advisers of 
kings and conquerors, in such circumstances as 
this, generally have the sagacity to discover 
what advice will be agreeable. At all events, 
Alexander followed the advice of his counselors, 
and made arrangements for arresting Philotas 
on that very evening. 

These circumxstances occurred at a time when 
the army was preparing for a march, the vari- 
ous generals lodging in tents pitched for the pur- 
pose. Alexander placed extra guards in vari- 
ous parts of the encampment, as if to impres3 



B.C. 329.] Change of Character. 241 

Arrest of Philotas. The body of Dymnus 

the whole army with a sense of the importance 
and solemnity of the occasion. He then sent 
officers to the tent of Philotas, late at night, to 
arrest him. The officers found their unhappy 
victim asleep. They awoke him, and made 
known their errand. Philotas arose, and obeyed 
the summons, dejected and distressed, aware, 
apparently, that his destruction was impending. 

The next morning Alexander called together 
a large assembly, consisting of the principal and 
most important portions of the army, to the num- 
ber of several thousands. They came together 
with an air of impressive solemnity, expecting, 
from the preliminary preparations, that business 
of very solemn moment was to come before them, 
though they knew not what it was. 

These impressions of awe and solemnity were 
very much increased by the spectacle which first 
met the eyes of the assembly after they were 
convened. This spectacle was that of the dead 
body of Dymnus, bloody and ghastly, v/hich Al- 
exander ordered to be brought in and exposed 
to view. The death of Dymnus had been kept 
a secret, so that the appearance of his body was 
an unexpected as well as a shocking sight. 
When the first feeling of surprise and wonder 
had a little subsided, Alexander explained to the 

Q 



242 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 329 

Alexander's address to the army. Fhilotas brought to trial 

assembly the nature of the conspiracy, and the 
circumstances connected with the self-execution 
of one of the guilty participators in it. The 
spectacle of the body, and the statement of the 
king, produced a scene of great and universal 
excitement in the assembly, and this excitemeni 
was raised to the highest pitch by the announce- 
ment which Alexander now made, that he had 
reason to believe that Philotas and his fathei 
Parmenio, officers who had enjoyed his highesi 
favor, and in whom he had placed the most un- 
bounded confidence, were the authors and orig 
inators of the whole design. 

He then ordered Philotas to be brought in 
He came guarded as a criminal, with his hands 
tied behind him, and his head covered with a 
coars3 cloth. He was in a state of great dejec- 
tion and despondency. It is true that he wag 
brought forward for trial, but he knew very well 
that trial meant torture, and that there was no 
hope for him as to the result. Alexander saiJ 
that he would leave the accused to be dealt with 
by the assembly, and withdrew. 

The authorities of the army, who now had 
the proud and domineering spirit which had so 
long excited their hatred and envy completely 
in their power^ listened for a time to what Phi- 



B.C. 329.] Change of Character. 243 

Defense of Philotas. He is put to the torture, 

lotas had to say in his own justification. Ha 
showed that there was no evidence whatever 
against him, and appealed to their sense of jus- 
tice not to condemn him on mere vague surmi- 
ses.. In reply, they decided to put him to tho 
torture. There was no evidence, it was true, 
and they wished, accordingly, to supply its place 
by his own confession, extorted by pain. Of 
course, his most inveterate and implacable ene- 
mies were appointed to conduct the operation. 
They put Philotas upon the rack. The rack is 
an instrument of wheels and pulleys, into which 
the victim is placed, and his limbs and tendons 
are stretched by it in a manner which produces 
most excruciating pain. 

Philotas bore the beginning of his torture with 
great resolution and fortitude. He made no 
complaint, he uttered no cry : this was the sig- 
nal to his executioners to increase the tension 
and the agony. Of course, in such a trial as 
this, there was no question of guilt or innocence 
at issue. The only question was, which could 
stand out the longest, his enemies in witness- 
ing horrible sufferings, or he himself in endur- 
ing them. In this contest the unhappy Philo- 
tas was vanquished at last. He begged them 
to release him from the rack, saying he would 



244 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 329. 

Confepsion of Philotas. He is stoned to death. 

confess whatever they requiredj on condition of 
being allowed to die in peace. 

They accordingly released him, and, in an« 
Bwer to their questions, he confessed that he him- 
self and his father were involved in the plot. He 
said yes to various other inquiries relating to the 
circumstances of the conspiracy, and to the guilt 
of various individuals whom those that managed 
the torture had suspected, or who, at any rate, 
they wished to have condemned. The answers 
of Philotas to all these questions were written 
down, and he was himself sentenced to be stoned. 
The sentence was put in execution without any 
delay. 

During all this time Parmenio v/as in Media, 
in command of a very important part of Alex- 
ander's army. It was decreed that he must 
die ; but some careful management was neces- 
sary to secure his execution while he was at so 
great a distance, and at the head of so great a 
force. The affair had to be conducted with great 
secrecy as well as dispatch. The plan adopted 
was as follows : 

There was a certain man, named Polydamas^ 
who was regarded as Parmenio's particular 
friend. Polydamas was commissioned to go to 
Media and see the execution performed. . He 



B.C. 329. 1 Change of Character. 245 

Paraieuio condemned to death. Mission of Polydamas. 

was selected, because it was supposed that if 
any enemy, or a stranger, had been sent, Par- 
menio would have received him with suspicion, 
or at least with caution, and kept himself on 
Iiis guard. They gave Polydamas several lot- 
ters to Parmenio, as if from his friends, and to 
one of them they attached the seal of his son 
Philotas, the more completely to deceive the 
unhappy father. Polydamas was eleven days 
on his journey into Media. He had letters to 
Cleander, the governor of the province of Media, 
which contained the king's warrant for Parme- 
nio's execution. He arrived at the house of 
Cleander in the night. He delivered his letters, 
and they together concerted the plans for carry- 
ing the execution into effect. 

After having taken all the precautions neces- 
sary, Polydamas went, with many attendants 
accompanying him, to the quarters of Parme- 
nio. The old general, for he was at this time 
eighty years of age, was v/alking in his gi'ounds. 
Polydamas being admitted, ran up to accost 
him, with great appearance of cordiality and 
friendship. He delivered to him his letters, and 
Parmenio read them. He seemed much pleas- 
ed with their contents, especially with the one 
which had been WTitten in the name of his son 



246 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 329 

Precautions. Brutal murder of Parmenio 

He had no means of detecting the imposture, 
for it was very customary in those days for let- 
ters to be written by secretaries, and to be au- 
thenticated solely by the seal. 

Parmenio was much pleased to get good tid- 
ings from Alexander, and from his son, and be- 
gan conversing upon the contents of the letters, 
when Polydamas, watching his opportunity, 
drew forth a dagger which he had concealed 
upon his person, and plunged it into Parmenio's 
side. He drew it forth immediately and struck 
it at his throat. The attendants rushed on at 
this signal, and thrust their swords again and 
again into the fallen body until it ceased to 
breathe. 

The death of Parmenio and of his son in this 
violent manner, when, too, there was so little 
evidence of their guilt, made a very general and 
a very unfavorable impression in respect to Al- 
exander ; and not long afterward another case 
occurred, in some respects still more painful, as 
it evinced still more strikingly that the mind of 
Alexander, which had been in his earlier days 
filled with such noble and lofty sentiments of 
justice and generosity, was gradually getting to 
be under the supreme dominion of selfish and un- 
governable passions : it was the case of C-litus 



B.C.329.J Change of Character. 247 

Story of Clitus. He saves Alexander's life. 

Clitus was a very celebrated general of Alex- 
ander's army, and a great favorite with the 
king. He had, in fact, on one occasion saved 
Alexander's life. It was at the battle of the 
Granicus. Alexander liad exposed himself in 
the thickest of the combat, and was surrounded 
by enemies. The sword of one of them was act- 
ually raised over his head, and would have fallen 
and killed him on the spot, if Clitus had not rush- 
ed forward and cut the man down just at the 
instant when he was about striking the blow. 
Such acts of fidelity and courage as this had 
given Alexander great confidence in Clitus. It 
happened, shortly after the death of Parmenio, 
that the governor of one of the most important 
provinces of the empire resigned his post. Al- 
exander appointed Clitus to fill the vacancy. 

The evening before his departure to take 
charge of his government, Alexander invited 
him to a banquet, made, partly at least, in hon- 
or of his elevation. Clitus and the other guests 
assembled. They drank wine, as usual, with 
great freedom. Alexander became excited, and 
began to speak, as he was now often accustomed 
to do, boastingly of his own exploits, and to dis- 
parage those of his father Philip in comparison. 

Men half intoxicated are very prone to qudj' 



248 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 329 

Services of Clitus. Occurrences at the banquet 

rel, and not the less so for being excellent friends 
when sober. . Clitus had served under Philip. 
He was now an old man, and, like other old men, 
was very tenacious of the glory that belonged to 
the exploits of his youth. He was very restless 
and uneasy at hearing Alexander claim for him- 
self the merit of his father Philip's victory at 
Chseronea, and began to murmur something to 
those who sat next to him about kings claiming 
and getting a great deal of glory which did not 
belong to them. 

Alexander asked what it was that Clitus said. 
No one replied. Clitus^ however, went on talk- 
ing, speaking more and more audibly as he be- 
came gradually more and more excited. He 
praised the character of Philip, and applauded 
his military exploits, saying that they were far 
superior to any of the enterprises of their day 
The different parties at the table took up the 
subject, and began to dispute, the old men tak- 
ing the part of Philip and former days, and the 
younger defending Alexander. Clitus became 
more and more excited. He praised Parmenio, 
who had been Philip's greatest general, and be- 
gan to impugn the justice of his late condemna- 
tion and death. 

Alexander retorted, and Clitus, rising from 



B.C. 329.] Change of Character. 249 

Clitus reproaches Alexander. Alexander's rage 

his seat, and losing now all self-command, re- 
proached him with severe and bitter words. 
'' Here is the hand," said he, extending his arm^ 
" that saved your life at the battle of the Gran- 
icus, and the fate of Parmenio shows what sort 
of gratitude and what rewards faithful servants 
are to expect at your hands." Alexander, burn- 
ing with rage, commanded Clitus to leave the 
table. Clitus obeyed, saying, as he moved away, 
^' He is right not to bear freeborn men at his ta- 
ble who can only tell him the truth. He is right. 
It is fitting for him to pass his life among bar- 
barians and slaves, who will be proud to pay 
their adoration to his Persian girdle and his 
splendid robe." 

Alexander seized a javelin to hurl at Clitus's 
head. The guests rose in confusion, and with 
many outcries pressed around him. Some seized 
Alexander's arm, some began to hurry Clitus 
out of the room, and some were engaged in 
loudly criminating and threatening each other. 
They got Clitus out of the apartment, but as 
soon as he was in the hall he broke away from 
them, returned by another door, and began to re- 
new his insults to Alexander. The king hurled 
his javelin and struck Clitus down, saying, at 
the same time, " Go, then, and join Philip and 



250 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 329 

Alexander assassinates Clitus. His remorse 

Parmenio." The company rushed to the res- 
cue of the unhappy man, but it was too late. 
He died almost immediately. 

Alexander, as soon as he came to himself, 
was overwhelmed with remorse and despair. 
He mourned bitterly, for many days, the death 
of his long-tried and faithful friend, and execra- 
ted the intoxication and passion, on his part, 
which had caused it. He could not, however, 
restore Clitus to life, nor remove from his own 
character the indelible stains which such deeds 
necessarily fixed upon it. 



B.C. 326.] Alexander's End. 251 

Alexanders invasion of India. Insubordination of the army. 



Chapter XIL 

Alexander's End. 

4 FTER the events narrated in the last chap- 
-^^^ ter, Alexander continued, for two or three 
years, his expeditions and conquests in Asia, 
and in the course of them he met with a great 
variety of adventures which can not bo here par- 
ticularly described. He penetrated into India 
as far as the banks of the Indus, and, not con- 
tent with this, was preparing to cross the Indus 
and go on to the Ganges. His soldiers, how- 
ever, resisted this design. They were alarmed 
at the stories which they heard of the Indian 
armies, with elephants bearing castles upoi] 
their backs, and soldiers armed with strange 
and unheard-of weapons. These rumors, and 
the natural desire of the soldiers not to go away 
any further from their native land, produced al- 
most a mutiny in the army. At length, Alex- 
ander, learning how strong an4 how extensive 
the spirit of insubordination was becoming, sum- 
moned his officers to his own tent, and then 
ordering the whole army to gather around, he 
went out to meet them. 



252 Alexander the Great. [B.C.326 

Alexander's address to the army. Address made to him 

He made an address to them, in which he re- 
counted all their past exploits, praised the cour- 
age and perseverance which they had shown 
thus far, and endeavored to animate them with 
a desire to proceed. Tliey listened in silence, 
and no one attempted to reply. This solemn 
pause was follow^ed by marks of great agitation 
throughout the assembly. The army loved 
their commander, notwithstanding his faults 
and failings. They were extremely unwilling 
to make any resistance to his authority ; but 
they had lost that extreme and unbounded con- 
fidence in his energy and virtue which made 
them ready, in the former part of his career, to 
press forward into any difficulties and dangers 
whatever, where he led the way. 

At last one of the army approached the king 
and addressed him somewhat as follows : 

''We are not changed, sir, in our affection 
for you. We still have, and shall always re« 
tain, the same zeal and the same fidelity. We 
are ready to follow you at the hazard of our 
lives, and to march wherever you may lead us 
Still we must ask you, most respectfully, to 
consider the circumstances in which we are 
placed. We have done all for you that it was 
Dossible for man to do. We have crossed seas 



B.C.325.] Alexander's End. 253 

The army refuses to go further. Alexander's aisappointment. 

and land. We have marched to the end of the 
world 5 and you are now meditating the conquest 
of another, by going in search of new Indias, 
unknown to the Indians themselves. Such a 
thought may be worthy of your courage and res- 
olution, but it surpasses ours, and our strength 
still more. Look at these ghastly faces, and 
these bodies covered with wounds and scars. 
Remember how numerous we were when first 
we set out with you, and see how few of us re- 
main. The few who have escaped so many 
toils and dangers have neither courage nor 
strength to follow you any further. They all 
long to revisit thoir country and their homes, 
and to enjoy, for the remainder of their lives, 
the fruits of all their toils. Forgive them these 
desires, so natural to man." 

The expression of these sentiments confirmed 
and strengthened them in the minds of all the 
soldiers. Alexander was greatly troubled and 
distressed. A disaffection in a small part of an 
army may be put down by decisive measures ; 
but when the determination to resist is univer- 
sal, it is useless for any commander, however 
imperious and absolute in temper, to attempt 
to withstand it. Alexander, however, was ex- 
tremely unwilling to yield. He remained two 



254 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 325. 

Alexander resolves to return. He is wounded in au assault. 

days shut up in his tent, the prey to disappoint* 
ment and chagrin. 

The result, however, v/as, that he abandoned 
plans of further conquest, and turned his steps 
again toward the west. He met with various 
adventures as he went on, and incurred many 
dangers, often in a rash and foolish manner, and 
for no good end. At one time, while attacking 
a small town, he seized a scaling ladder and 
mounted with the troops. In doing this, how- 
ever, he put himself forward so rashly and in- 
considerately that his ladder was broken, and 
while the rest retreated he was left alone upon 
the wall, whence he descended into the town, 
and was immediately surrounded by enemies. 
His friends raised their ladders again, and press- 
ed on desperately to find and rescue him. Some 
gathered around him and defended him, while 
others contrived to open a small gate, by which 
the rest of the army gained admission. By this 
means Alexander was saved ; though, when they 
brought him out of the city, there was an arro¥/ 
three feet long, which could not be extracted, 
sticking into his side through his coat of mail. 

The surgeons first very carefully cut off* tho 
wooden shaft of the arrow, and then, enlarging 
the wound by incisions, they drev/ out the barbed 



B.C.324.J Alexander's End. 2o5 

A.lexander's excesses. He abandons his old friends, 

point. The soldiers were indignant that Alex- 
ander should expose his person in such a fool 
hardy way, only to endanger himself, and to com- 
l)el them to rush into danger to rescue him 
The wound very nearly proved fatal. The loss 
of blood was attended with extreme exhaustion ; 
still, in the course of a few weeks he recovered. 

Alexander's habits of intoxication and vicious 
excess of all kinds were, in the mean time, con- 
tinually increasing. He not only indulged in 
such excesses himself, but he encouraged them 
in others. He would offer prizes at his ban- 
quets to those w^ho would drink the most. On 
one of these occasions, the man who conquered 
drank, it is said, eighteen or twenty pints of 
wine, after which he lingered in misery for three 
days, and then died ; and more than forty oth- 
ers, present at the same entertainment, died in 
consequence of their excesses. 

Alexander returned toward Babylon. His 

friend Hephsestion was with him, sharing with 

him every where in all the vicious indulgences 

to which he had become so prone. Alexander 

gradually separated himself more and more from 

his old Macedonian friends, and linked himself 

more and more closely with Persian associates. 

He married Statira, the oldest daughter of Da* 
35 



256 Alexander the Great [B.C. 323 

Entrance into Babylon. Magnificent spectacle 

rius, and gave the youngest daughter to He- 
phsestion. He encouraged similar marriages be- 
tween Macedonian officers and Persian maidens, 
as far as he could. In a word, he seemed in- 
tent in merging, in every way, his original char- 
acter and habits of action in the effeminacy, lux- 
ury, and vice of the Eastern world, which he had 
at first so looked down upon and despised. 

Alexander's entrance into Babylon, on his re- 
turn from his Indian campaigns, was a scene of 
great magnificence and splendor. Embassadors 
and princes had assembled there from almost ail 
the nations of the earth to receive and welcome 
him, and the most ample preparations were 
made for processions, shows, parades, and spec- 
tacles to do him honor. The whole country 
was in a state of extreme excitement, and the 
most expensive preparations were made to give 
him a reception worthy of one who was the con- 
queror and monarch of the world, and the son 
of a god. 

When Alexander approached the city, how- 
ever, he was met by a deputation of Chaldean 
astrologers. The astrologers were a class of 
philosophers who pretended, in those days, to 
foretell human events by means of the motions 
of the stars. The motions of the stars were 



B.C. 823.] Alexander's End. 257 

The astrologers. Study of the stars. 

studied very closely in early times, and in those 
Eastern countries, by the shepherds, who had 
(;ften to remain in the open air, through the 
summer nights, to watch their flocks. These 
shepherds observed that nearly all the stars were 
fixed in relation to each other, that is, although 
they rose successively in the east, and, passing 
over, set in the west, they did not change in re- 
lation to each other. There were, however, a 
few that wandered about among the rest in 
an irregular and unaccountable manner. They 
called these stars the wanderers — that is, in 
their language, the planets — and they watched 
their mysterious movements with great interest 
and awe. They naturally imagined that these 
changes had some connection with human af- 
fairs, and they endeavored to prognosticate from 
them the events, whether prosperous or adverse, 
which were to befall mankind. Whenever a 
comet or an eclipse appeared, they thought it 
portended some terrible calamity. The study 
of the motions and appearances of the stars, with 
a view to foretell the course of human affairs, 
was the science of astrology. 

The astrologers came, in a very solemn and 
imposing procession, to meet Alexander on his 
march. They informed him that they had 
R 



258 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 323 

Warning of the astrologers. Alexander's perplexity 

found indubitable evidence in the stars that, if 
lie came into Babylon, he would hazard his life. 
They accordingly begged him not to approach 
any nearer, but to choose some other city for 
his capital. Alexander was very much perplex- 
ed by this announcement. His mind, weaken- 
ed by effeminacy and dissipation, was very sus- 
ceptible to superstitious fears. It was not mere- 
ly by the debilitating influence of vicious indul- 
gence on the nervous constitution that this effect 
was produced. It was, in part, the moral influ- 
ence of conscious guilt. Guilt makes men 
afraid. It not only increases the power of real 
dangers, but predisposes the mind to all sorts 
of imaginary fears. 

Alexander was very much troubled at thi^ 
announcement of the astrologers. He suspend- 
ed his march, and began anxiously to considei 
what to do. At length the Greek philosopher? 
came to him and reasoned with him on the sub^ 
ject, persuading him that the science of astrol- 
ogy was not worthy of any belief. The Greeks 
had no faith in astrology. They foretold future 
events by the flight of birds, or by the appear- 
ances presented in the dissection of beasts ofier- 
ed in sacrifice ! 

At length, however, Alexander's fears were 



B.C.323.J Alexander's Enu. 259 

Death of Hephaestion. Alexander's melancholy 

SO far allayed that he concluded to enter the 
city. He advanced, accordingly, with his whole 
army, and made his entry under circumstances 
of the greatest possible parade and splendor. 
As soon, however, as the excitement of the first 
few days had passed away, his mind relapsed 
again, and he became anxious, troubled, and 
unhappy. 

Hephaestion, his great personal friend and 
companion, had died while he was on the march 
toward Babylon. He was brought to the grave 
by diseases produced by dissipation and vice. 
Alexander was very much moved by his death. 
It threw him at once into a fit of despondency 
and gloom. It was some time before he could 
at all overcome the melancholy reflections and 
forebodings which this event produced. He de- 
termined that, as soon as he arrived in Babylon, 
he would do all possible honor to Hephsestion's 
memory by a magnificent funeral. 

He accordingly now sent orders to all the cit- 
ies and kingdoms around, and collected a vast 
sum for this purpose. He had a part of the 
city wall pulled down to furnish a site for a mon- 
umental edifice. This edifice was constructed 
of an enormous size and most elaborate archi- 
tecture. It was ornamented with long rows of 



260 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 323 

Funeral honors to Hephsestion. A stupendous project 

prows of shipSj taken by Alexander in his vic- 
tories, and by statues, and columns, and sculp- 
tures, and gilded ornaments of every kind. 
There were images of sirens on the entabla* 
tures near the roof, which, by means of a mech- 
anism concealed within, were made to sing dirg- 
es and mournful songs. The expense of this 
edifice, and of the games, shows, and spectacles 
connected with its consecration, is said by the 
historians of the day to have been a sum which, 
on calculation, is found equal to about ten mill- 
ions of dollars. 

There were, however, some limits still to Al- 
exander's extravagance and folly. There was 
a mountain in Greece, Mount Athos, which a 
certain projector said could be carved and fash- 
ioned into the form of a man — probably in a re- 
cumbent posture. There was a city on one of 
the declivities of the mountain, and a small riv- 
er, issuing from springs in the ground, came 
down on the other side. The artist who con- 
ceived of this prodigious piece of sculpture said 
tliat he would so shape the figure that the city 
should be in one of its hands, and the river 
should flow out from the other. 

Alexander listened to this proposal. The 
name Mount Athos recalled to his mind the 



B.C 323.J Alexander's End. 263 

Alexander's depression Magnificent plans, 

attempt of Xerxes^ a former Persian king, who 
had attempted to cut a road through the rocks 
upon a part of Mount Athos, in the invasion of 
Greece. He did not succeed, but left the un- 
finished work a lasting memorial both of the 
attempt and the failure. Alexander concluded 
at length that he would not attempt such a 
sculpture. ''Mount Athos," said he, ''is al- 
ready the monument of one king's folly ; I will 
not make it that of another." 

As soon as the excitement connected with 
the funeral obsequies of Hephsestion were over, 
Alexander's mind relapsed again into a state of 
gloomy melancholy. This depression, caused, as 
it was, by previous dissipation and vice, seemed 
to admit of no remedy or relief but in new ex- 
cesses. The traces, however, of his former en- 
ergy so far remained that he began to form mag- 
nificent plans for the improvement of Babylon 
He commenced the execution of some of these 
plans. His time was spent, in short, in strange 
alternations : resolution and energy in forming 
vast plans one day, and utter abandonment to 
all the excesses of dissipation and vice the next. 
It was a mournful spectacle to see his former 
greatness of soul still struggling on, though 
more and more faintly, as it became gradually 



264 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 321. 

A prolonged carousal. Alexander's excesses. 

overborne by the resistless inroads of intemper- 
ance and sin. The scene was at length sud- 
denly terminated in the following manner : 

On one occasion, after he had spent a whol(3 
night in drinking and carousing, the guests, 
when the usual time arrived for separating, pro- 
posed that, instead of this, they should begin 
anew, and commence a second banquet at the 
end of the first. Alexander, half intoxicated al- 
ready, entered warmly into this proposal. They 
assembled, accordingly, in a very short time. 
There were twenty present at this new feast. 
Alexander, to show how far he was from having 
exhausted his powers of drinking, began to 
pledge each one of the company individually. 
Then he drank to them all together. There 
was a very large cup, called the bowl of Her- 
cules, which he now called for, and, after hav- 
ing filled it to the brim, he drank it off to the 
health of one of the company present, a Mace- 
donian named Proteas. This feat being receiv- 
ed by the company with great applause, he or- 
dered the great bowl to be filled again, and 
drank it off* as before. 

The work was now done. His faculties and 
his strength soon failed him, and he sank down 
to the floor. They bore him away to his pal- 



B.C 321.1 Alexander's End. 26(1 



Alexander's last sickness. His dyii g words 

ace. A violent fever intervened, which the phy- 
sicians did all in their power to allay. As soon 
as his reason returned a little, Alexander arous- 
ed himself from his lethargy, and tried to per- 
suade himself that he should recover. He began 
to issue orders in regard to the army, and to his 
ships, as if such a turning of his mind to the 
thoughts of power and empire would help bring 
him back from the brink of the grave toward 
which he had been so obviously tending. He 
was determined, in fact, that he would not die. 

He soon found, however, notwithstanding his 
efforts to be vigorous and resolute, that his 
strength was fast ebbing away. The vital pow- 
ers had received a fatal wound, and he soon felt 
that they could sustain themselves but little 
longer. He came to the conclusion that he 
must die. He drew his signet ring off from his 
finger ; it was a token that he felt that all v/as 
over. He handed the ring to one of his friends 
who stood by his bed-side. " When I am gone," 
said he, " take my body to the Temple of Ju* 
piter Ammon, and inter it there." 

The generals whr. were around him advanced 
to his bed-side, and one after another kissed his 
hand. Their old affection for him revived as 
they saw him about to take leave of them for- 



^66 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 321. 

Alexander's death. Alexander and Washington 

ever. They asked him to whom he wished to 
leave his empire. '' To the most worthy," said 
he. He meant, doubtless, by this evasion, that 
he was too weak and exhausted to think of such 
affairs. He knew, probably, that it was use- 
less for him to attempt to control the govern- 
ment of his empire after his death. He said, in 
fact, that he foresaw that the decision of such 
questions would give rise to some strange fu- 
neral games after his f^^^cease. Soon after this 
he died. 

The palaces of Babylon were immediately 
filled with cries of mourning at the death of the 
prince, followed by bitter and interminable dis- 
putes about the succession. It had not been 
the aim of Alexander's life to establish firm and 
well-settled governments in the countries that 
he conquered, to encourage order, and peace, 
and industry among men, and to introduce sys- 
tem and regularity in human affairs, so as to 
leave the world in a better condition than he 
found it. In this respect his course of conduct 
presents a strong contrast with that of Wash- 
ington. It was Washington's aim to mature 
and perfect organizations which would move on 
prosperously of themselves, without him; and 
he was continually withdrawing his hand from 



B.C. 821] Alexander's End. 267 

Calamitous results whicli followed Alexander's death. 

action and control in public affairs, taking a 
higher pleasure in the independent working of 
the institutions which he had formed and pro- 
tected, than in exercising, himself, a high person, 
al power. Alexander, on the other hand, was all 
his life intent solely on enlarging and strength- 
ening his own personal power. He was all in 
all. He wished to make himself so. He never 
thought of the welfare of the countries which he 
had subjected to his sway, or did any thing to 
guard against the anarchy and civil wars which 
he knew full well would break out at once over 
all his vast dominions, as soon as his power came 
to an end. 

The result was as might have been foreseen. 
The whole vast field of his conquests became, 
for many long and weary years after Alexan- 
der's death, the prey to the most ferocious and 
protracted civil wars. Each general and gov- 
ernor seized the power which Alexander's death 
left in his hands, and endeavored to defend him- 
self in the possession of it against the others. 
Thus the devastation and misery which the 
making of these conquests brought upon Eu- 
rope and Asia were continued for many years, 
during the slow and terrible process of their re« 
turn to their original condition. 



2G8 Alexander the (J-reat. [B.C. 321 

Etormy debates. Aridgeus appointed king. 

In the exigency of the moment, however, at 
Alexander's death the generals who were in 
his court at the time assembled forthwith, and 
made an attempt to appoint some one to take 
the immediate command. They spent a week 
in stormy debates on this subject. Alexander 
had left no legitimate heir, and he had declined, 
when on his death-bed, as we have already seen, 
to appoint a successor. Among his wives — if, 
indeed, they may be called wives — ^there was 
one named Roxana, who had a son not long 
after his death. This son was ultimately nam- 
ed his successor ; but, in the mean time, a cer- 
tain relative named Aridseus was chosen by the 
generals to assume the command. The selec- 
tion of Aridseus was a sort of compromise. He 
had no talents or capacity whatever, and was 
chosen by the rest on that very account, each 
one thinking that if such an imbecile as Aridse- 
us was nominally the king, he could himself 
manage to get possession of the real power. 
Aridseus accepted the appointment, but he was 
never a])le to make himself king in any thing 
but the name. 

In the mean time, as the tidings of Alexan- 
der's death spread over the empire, it produced 
very various effects, according to the personal 



B.C. 321.] Alexander's End. 269 



Effects of the news of Alexander's death. Sysigambis 

fealiitgs in respect to Alexander entertained by 
the various personages and powers to which the 
inteUigence came. Some, who had admired his 
greatness, and the splendor of his exploits, with- 
out having themselves experienced the bitter 
fruits of them, mourned and lamented his death. 
Others, whose fortunes had been ruined, and 
whose friends and relatives had been destroyed, 
in the course, or in the sequel of his victories, 
rejoiced that he who had been such a scourge 
and curse to others, had himself sunk, at last, 
under the just judgment of Heaven. 

We should have expected that Sysigambis, 
the bereaved and widowed mother of Darius, 
would have been among those who would have 
exulted most highly at the conqueror's death ; 
but history tells us that, instead of this, she 
mourned over it with a protracted and incon- 
solable grief. Alexander had been, in fact, 
though the implacable enemy of her son, a faith- 
ful and generous friend to her. He had treated 
her, at all times, with the utmost respect and 
consider ation, had supplied all her wants, and 
minister-red, in every way, to her comfort and 
happin(^>ss. She had gradually learned to think 
of him and to love him as a son ; he, in fact, 
always called her mother ; and when she learn- 



270 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 321 

Death of Sysigambis. Rejoicings at Athens 

ed that he was gone, she felt as if her last 
earthly protector was gone. Her life had been 
one continued scene of affliction and sorrow, and 
this last blow brought her to her end. She 
pined away, perpetually restless and distressed. 
She lost all desire for food, and refused, like 
others who are suffering great mental anguish, 
to take the sustenance which her friends and 
attendants offered and urged upon her. At 
length she died. They said she starved herself 
to death ; but it was, probably, grief and de 
spair at being thus left, in her declining years, 
so hopelessly friendless and alone, and not hun- 
ger, that destroyed her. 

In striking contrast to this mournful scene of 
sorrow in the palace of Sysigambis, there was 
an exhibition of the most wild and tumultuous 
joy in the streets, and in all the public places 
of resort in the city of Athens, when the tidings 
of the death of the great Macedonian king ar- 
rived there. The Athenian commonwealth, as 
well as all the other states of Southern Greece, 
had submitted very reluctantly to the Macedo- 
nian supremacy. They had resisted Philip, and 
they had resisted Alexander. Their opposition 
had been at last suppressed and silenced by Al- 
exander's terrible vengeance upon Thebes, but 



B.C. 321.] Alexander's End. 271 

Demosthenes. Joy of the Athenians. Phociou 

it never was really subdued. Demosthenes, the 
orator, who had exerted so powerful an influ- 
ence against the Macedonian kings, had been 
sent into banishment, and all outward expres- 
sions of discontent were restrained. The dis- 
content and hostility existed still, however, as 
inveterate as ever, and was ready to break out 
anew, with redoubled violence, the moment that 
the terrible energy of Alexander himself was no 
longer to be feared. 

When, therefore, the rumor arrived at Ath- 
ens — for at first it was a mere rumor — that Al- 
exander was dead in Babylon, the whole city 
was thrown into a state of the most tumultuous 
joy. The citizens assembled in the public pla- 
ces, and congratulated and harangued each oth- 
er with expressions of the greatest exultation 
They were for proclaiming their independence 
and declaring war against Macedon on the spot. 
Some of the older and more sagacious of their 
counselors were, however, mor^ composed and 
calm. They recommended a little delay, in or- 
der to see whether the news was really true. 
Phocion, in particular, who was one of the prom- 
inent statesmen of the city, endeavored to quiet 
the excitement of the people. " Do not let U!3 
be so precipitate," said he. '^ Tliere is time 
36 



272 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 321 

Measures of the Athenians. Triumphant return of Demosthenea 

enough. If Alexander is really dead to-day, he 
will be dead to-morrow, and the next day, so 
that there will be time enough for us to act with 
deliberation and discretion." 

Just and true as this view of the subject was, 
there was too much of rebuke and satire in it 
to have much influence with those to whom it 
was addressed. The people were resolved on 
war> They sent commissioners into all the 
states of the Peloponnesus to organize a league, 
offensive and defensive, against Macedon. They 
recalled Demosthenes from his banishment, and 
adopted all the necessary military measures foi 
establishing and maintaining their freedom. 
The consequences of all this would doubtless 
have been very serious, if the rumor of Alexan 
der's death had proved false; but, fortunately 
for Demosthenes and the Athenians, it was soon 
abundantly confirmed. 

The return of Demosthenes to the city was 
like the triumphal entry of a conqueror. At 
the time of his recall he was at the island of 
iEgina, which is about forty miles southwest 
of Athens, in one of the gulfs of the ^gean Sea. 
They sent a public galley to receive him, and 
to bring him to the land. It was a galley of 
three banks of oars, and was fitted up in a style 



B.C.321.] Alexander's End. 273 

Grand reception of Demosthenes. Preparations for the funeral 

to do honor to a public guest. Athens is situ- 
ated some distance back from the sea, and has 
a small port, called the Piraeus, at the shore — a 
long, straight avenue leading from the port to 
the city. The galley by which Demosthenes 
was conveyed landed at the Pirseus. All the 
civil and religious authorities of the city went 
down to the port, in a grand procession, to re- 
ceive and welcome the exile on his arrival, and 
a large portion of the population followed in the 
train, to witness the spectacle, and to swell by 
their acclamations the general expression of joy.' 
In the mean time, the preparations for Alex- 
ander's funeral had been going on, upon a great 
scale of magnificence and splendor. It was two 
years before they were complete. The body 
had been given, first, to be embalmed, accord- 
ing to the Egyptian and Chaldean art, and then 
had been placed in a sort of sarcophagus, in 
v/hich it was to be conveyed to its long home. 
Alexander, it will be remembered, had given 
directions that it should be taken to the temple 
of Jupiter Ammon, in the Egyptian oasis, where 
he had been pronounced the son of a god. It 
would seem incredible that such a mind as his 
could really admit such an absurd superstition 
OS the story of his divine origin, and we must 
S 



274 Alexander the Great. [B.C. 319 

Dcsrination of Alexander's body. A funeral on a grand scale. 

therefore suppose that he gave this direction in 
order that the place of his interment might con- 
firm the idea of his superhuman nature in tho 
general opinion of mankind. At all events, such 
were his orders, and the authorities who were 
left in power at Babylon after his death, pre- 
pared to execute them. 

It was a long journey. To convey a body, 
by a regular funeral procession, formed as soon 
after the death as the arrangements could be 
made, from Babylon to the eastern frontiers of 
Egypt, a distance of a thousand miles, was 
perhaps as grand a plan of interment as was 
ever formed. It has something like a parallel 
in the removal of Napoleon's body from St. Hel- 
ena to Paris, though this was not really an in- 
terment, but a transfer. Alexander's was a 
simple burial procession, going from the palace 
where he died to the proper cemetery — a march 
of a thousand miles, it is true, but all within 
his own dominions. The greatness of it result- 
ed simply from the magnitude of the scale on 
which every thing pertaining to the mighty here 
was performed, for it was nothing but a simple 
Dassage from the dwelling to the burial-ground 
on his own estates, after all. 

A vory large and elaborately constructed car- 



B.C. 319.] Alexander's End. 275 

The funeral car. Its construction and magn^^de; 

riage was built to conTey the body. The ac- 
counts of the richness and splendor of this ve- 
hicle are almost incredible. The spokes and 
naves of the wheels were overlaid with gold, 
and the extremities of the axles, where they 
appeared outside at the centers of the wheels, 
were adorned with massive golden ornaments. 
The wheels and axle-trees were so large, and 
so far apart, that there was supported upon 
them a platform or floor for the carriage twelve 
feet wide and eighteen feet long. Upon this 
platform there was erected a magnificent pavil- 
ion, supported by Ionic columns, and profusely 
ornamented, both within and without, with pur- 
ple and gold. The interior constituted an apart- 
ment, more or less open at the sides, and re- 
splendent within with gems and precious stones. 
The space of twelve feet by eighteen forms a 
chamber of no inconsiderable size, and there 
was thus ample room for what was required 
within. There was a throne, raised some steps, 
and placed back upon the platform, profusely 
carved and gilded. It was empty ; but crowns, 
representing the various nations over whom Al- 
exander had reigned, were hung upon it. At 
the foot of the throne was the coffin, made, it 
is said, of solid gold, and containing, besides 



276 AltEXander the Great. [B.C. 319 

Ornaments and basso relievos. Column of mules. 

the body, a large quantity of the most costly 
spices and aromatic perfumes, which filled the 
air with their odor. The arms which Alexan- 
der wore were laid out in view, also, between 
the coffin and the throne. 

On the four sides of the carriage were basso 
relievos^ that is, sculptured figures raised from 
a surface, representing Alexander himself, with 
various military concomitants. There were 
Macedonian columns, and Persian squadrons, 
and elephants of India, and troops of horse, and 
various other emblems of the departed hero's 
greatness and power. Around the pavilion, too, 
there was a fringe or net- work of golden lace, 
to the pendents of which were attached bells, 
which tolled continually, with a mournful sound; 
as the carriage moved along. A long column 
of mules, sixty-four in number, arranged in 
sets of four, drew this ponderous car. These 
mules were all selected for their great size 
and strength, and were splendidly caparisoned. 
They had collars and harnesses mounted with 
gold, and enriched with precious stones. 

Before the procession set out from Babylon 
an army of pioneers and workmen went for 
ward to repair the roads, strengthen the bridg 
es, and remove the obstacles along the whole 



B.C.319.] Alexander's End. 277 

Crowds of spectators. The body deposited at Alexandria 

line of route over which the train was to pass 
At length, when all was ready, the solemn pro- 
cession began to move, and passed out through 
the gates of Babylon. No pen can describe the 
enormous throngs of spectators that assembled 
to witness its departure, and that gathered 
along the route, as it passed slowly on from 
city to city, in its long and weary way. 

Notwithstanding all this pomp and parade, 
however, the body never reached its intended 
destination. Ptolemy, the officer to whom Egypt 
fell in the division of Alexander's empire, came 
forth with a grand escort of troops to meet the 
funeral procession as it came into Egypt. He 
preferred, for some reason or other, that the 
body should be interred in the city of Alexan- 
dria. It was accordingly deposited there, and 
a great monument vv^as erected over the spot. 
This monument is said to have remained stand- 
ing for fifteen hundred years, but all vestiges of 
it have now disappeared. The city of Alexan- 
dria itself, how^ever, is the conqueror's real mon- 
ument ; the greatest and best, perhaps, that any 
conqueror ever left behind him. It is a monu- 
ment, too, that time will not destroy ; its position 
and character, as Alexander foresaw, by bringing 
it a continued renovation, secure its perpetuity 



278 Alexander the Great. [B.C.319. 

Alexander's true character. Conclusioa 

Alexander earned well the name and reputa- 
tion of the Great. He was truly great in all 
those powers and capacities which can elevate 
one man above his fellows. We can not help 
applauding the extraordinary energy of his gen- 
ius, though we condemn the selfish and cruel 
ends to which his life was devoted. He was 
fsimply a robber, but yet a robber on so vast a 
gcale, that mankind, in contemplating his ca- 
reer, have generally lost sight of the wickedness 
of his crimes in their admiration of the enor- 
mous magnitude of the scale on which they were 
perpetrated. 



The End, 



Notes to Cykus the Gkeat. 



p. 16: Herodotus and Xenophon. — In this history Mr. Ab- 
bott generally follows the account given by Herodotus. The 
chief points of difference in the narrative of Xenophon are 
the following : He represents Cyrus as brought up at his 
grandfather's court, as serving in the Median army under 
his uncle Cyaxares, the son and successor of Astyages, of 
whom Herodotus and Ctesias know nothing; as making 
war upon Babylon simplj* as the general of Cyaxares, who 
remained at home during the latter part of the Assyrian 
war, and permitted Cyrus to assume without opposition the 
power of state and an independent sovereign at Babylon ; 
as marrying the daughter of Cyaxares ; and at length dying 
quietly in his bed after a series of Socratic discourses to his 
children and friends. Diodorus, a Roman historian of the 
time of Caesar and Augustus, agrees, for the most part, with 
Herodotus. As a means of preparing for his "Universal 
History," he travelled over the greater part of Europe and 
Asia, and his work embraced a period from the earliest ages 
down to the time of Julius Caesar; but as he made no at- 
tempt to exercise any criticism upon the materials which 
he gathered, his work gives very little additional authority 
to the account of Herodotus. Neither Herodotus nor Xen- 
ophon are regarded by the latest and best authorities as af- 
fording a really trustworthy narrative of the facts. Xen- 
ophon's *'Cyropedia" is not unjustly characterized by 
Brooke, Foss, and Westcott as '' romance." It was written 
for the purpose, not of giving an accurate narrative of facts, 
but of portraying Xenophon's ideal of a true ruler. He- 
rodotus seems to be more worthy of credit. "Where he 
speaks,'' says Dr. William Smith, "from his own observa- 
tion, his accounts may be implicitly relied upon ;" many of 
them which were formerly doubted as impossible have been 
confirmed by the researches of modern travellers. Never- 
theless, he is not inaptly called by Macaulay "one of the 
romantic historians;" and although it is perhaps too much 
to say, with Macaiilay, that "he is from the first to the last 



Notes to Cykus the Gkeat. 

chapter an inventor," it is very certain that he does not 
hesitate to use his invention in narrating those facts re- 
specting whicli accuracy of knowledge was impossible. 

P. 25 : Herodotus^ s History. — The story that Herodotus read 
his work to the assembled Greeks at Olympia rests upon the 
authority of Lucian, who states that Thucydides was pres- 
ent, and moved to tears by the recital; but it would appear 
that, if this story were true, Herodotus could not have been 
more than thirty-two years of age at the time of this recital, 
and the work contains numerous historical allusions which 
belong to a later day than that of the recital, and the hy- 
pothesis that he recited parts of it, or a sketch of it, is not 
sustained by Lucian' s description of the event. The best 
scholars are now of the opinion that Lucian's story is un- 
trustworthy ; that the work was finished by Herodotus in 
his old age, and from allusions in the histor}^ was written 
in Southern Italy. The division into books is now supposed 
to have been made by an editor at a later date. 

P. 67 : Birth of Cyrus. — The facts respecting the birth and 
ancestry of Cyrus are involved in great uncertainty. The 
best authorities are generally of the opinion that Astyages 
had no son ; Herodotus distinctly declares that he had not, 
and there is nothing to give sanction to the statement of 
Xenophon that he had a son and heir, Cyaxares II. Both 
Xenophon and Herodotus declare that Mandane, the mother 
of Cyrus, was the daughter of Astyages ; but this statement 
is doubted by Kawlinson ; he thinks that this story was in- 
tended to gratify the vanity of the Persians by tracing the 
descent of their kings to the great Median conqueror Cyax- 
ares L, while at the same time it flattered the Medes, by 
showing them that the issue of their old monarchs was still 
sitting on the throne. He adds, " When an Oriental Crown 
passes from one dynasty to another, however foreign and 
unconnected, the natives are wont to invent a relationship 
between the two houses, which both parties are commonly 
quite ready to accept ; as it suits the rising house to be i)ro- 
vided with a royal ancestry, and it pleases the fallen one and 
its partisans to see in the occupants of the throne a branch 
of the ancient stock — a continuation of the legitimate fami- 
ly. Tales, therefore, of the above-mentioned kind are, his- 
torically speaking, valueless, and it must remain uncertain 
whether the second Median monarch (Astyages) had any 
child at all, either male or female." 

[ii] 



Notes to Cyrus the Great. 

p. 72: Median Dress. — The favorite dress of the Medes is 
^ve\l known to us from the sculptures. The outer garment 
was a long flowing robe ; these robes were of many colors — 
purple, scarlet, crimson, occasionally a dark gray ; they were 
made of rich materials, often of silk; they wore head-dress- 
es, frequently of an elaborate character, both in-doors and 
out; they took special delight in the adornment of their 
persons ; they employed cosmetics for the sake of improv- 
ing the complexion ; made use of an abundance of false hair; 
applied dyes to enhance the brilliancy of the eyes and give 
them a greater apparent size and softness, and were fond of 
wearing golden ornaments — chains or collars of gold about 
their necks, golden bracelets upon their arms, and golden 
ear-rings. For illustration and further description, see Raw- 
linson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii. pp. 313-317. 

P. 142: Death of Astyages. — There are various accounts of 
the death of Astyages. According to some authorities, he 
died a natural death in captivity; according to others, he 
w^as left to perish in a desert region, as described in the text ; 
while according to still others he was succeeded by his son, 
Cyaxares II., and on his death Cyrus succeeded to the 
throne. This last is Xenophon's account, and does not 
agree with such other historical records as we have of these 
remote events. 

P. 143: Cyruses Flans. — Rawlinson supposes that the first 
object of Cyrus, in his attack upon Astyages, was simply to 
establish the independence of his own country ; but that his 
successes led him on to transfer the failing and weakened 
empire of the Medes to himself. 

P. 206: The Capture of Babylon. — Herodotus and Xeno- 
phon differ materially in their account of the campaign of 
Cyrus against Babylon, and the capture of that city. The 
account in the text follows mainly Herodotus. According 
to Xenophon, Cyrus, in his campaign against Babylon, acted 
simply as the general of Cyaxares, the son and successor of 
Astyages, and it has been supposed by some critics that this 
version better accords with the Biblical narrative which at- 
tributes the capture of Babylon to Darius the Mede (Dan. 
vi. 31), who, according to these critics, is supposed to be 
identical with Cyaxares II. 

The better opinion, however, is that the story of Herod- 
otus is the more trustworthy one ; that the city was capt- 
ured under Cyrus, and that Darius, the Mede referred to in 



[iii] 



Notes to Cybus the Great. 

Daniel, was a noble Median who held the sovereignty, as 
the viceroy of Cyrus, until the latter concluded to establish 
his own court in that city. A difficulty has also been 
experienced in reconciling the account of the capture of 
Babylon given by the Bible with that found in Herodotus. 
According to the Scripture account in Dan. v., Belshazzar, 
the last king of Babylon, was captured with that city by 
Cyrus, and was by him put to death. But, according to 
secular history, the last king of Babylon was one Nabonne- 
dus, or Labynetus, who was defeated in the open plain, and 
retired to the neighboring city of Borsippa, and was block- 
aded there ; and at length surrendering to Cyrus, his life 
was spared, and a principality in Carmania was bestowed on 
him, where he died. But this seeming discrepancy is re- 
moved, and the Scripture account is confirmed, by a re- 
markable discovery made by Colonel Rawlinson in 1854, at 
Mugheir, the ancient Ur. Documents were brought to light 
which prove that Nabonnedus, during the last years of his 
reign, associated his son Bil-shar-uzur with himself in the 
government, and allowed him the royal title. He then, prob- 
ably, conducted the defense of Babj^lon within the walls, 
while the father commanded without. Bil-shar-uzur was 
very young at the time ; but princes as young as he have 
held high command in the East. Thus Herod the Great 
was governor of Galilee at fifteen. In Dan. v. 11, 13, 18, 22, 
etc., where Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as the father' of 
Belshazzar, the word may properly be translated ancestor, 
and is rendered " grandfather " in the margin. 

P. 222 : The Character of Cyrus.— A great deal of interest 
has been felt in the attempt to form some clear and accurate 
conception of the character of Cyrus the Great, and partic- 
ularly of the motives which led him to encourage and pro- 
vide for the restoration of the Jews, and the rebuilding of 
their Temple. The materials for a correct estimate of his 
character are very slight, and not very trustworthy. Skep- 
ticism has thrown considerable doubt upon the edict giv- 
en in the first chapter of the Book of Ezra for the restora- 
tion of the Jews, which has been supposed by such writers 
as Ewald to have been greatly colored by the Jewish his- 
torian ; and Cyrus has been regarded as a sort of Genghis 
Khan, and pictured as a furious iconoclast ; and in support 
of this view such passages as Isa. xlvi. 1, 2 ; Jer. 1. 2 ; li. 
44, 52, have been cited. These passages have been supposed 
[iv] 



Notes to Cyrus the Great. 

to indicate that he broke in pieces the idols which he found 
in Babylon, and carried away the fragments of them in Avag- 
ons, which groaned under the weight. See Stanley's Lect- 
ures on the Jewish Churchy Third Series, p. 67. But some re- 
cent discoveries tend to throw light upon the act of Cyrus 
the Great in restoring the Jews to their native land, and at 
the same time to explain the reason which led him so to do. 
Last summer (1879) some Arabs obtained from one of the 
Babylonian ruins a broken clay cylinder, barrel-shaped, about 
nine inches long, and three and one-fourth inches in diame- 
ter at the ends, containing an inscription embodying a proc- 
lamation of Cyrus. In this he declares, somewhat self-com- 
placently, the great services that he has rendered to the 
provinces which have come under his authority. He says, 
*'The gods who dwelt among them, to their places I re- 
stored, and I assigned them a permanent habitation ; all 
their people I assembled, and I increased their property; 
and the gods of Sumer Akkad, whom Nabonidus had intro- 
duced at their festivals, and the Lord of the Gods at Kal- 
Anna, by the command of Merodach the Great Lord, I as- 
signed them an honorable seat in their sanctuaries, as was 
enjoyed by all the other gods in their own cities ; and daily 
I prayed to Bel and Nebo that they would lengthen my 
days and increase my good fortunes," etc. In a suggestive 
article in the Contemporary Review for January, 1880, Canon 
Rawlinson discusses the character of Cyrus the Great, and 
his motive in the restoration of the Jews, as indicated by 
this recently discovered proclamation, and concludes that 
he was a politic prince, cool and cautious, and so broad in 
his views as to be willing to identify his own supreme dei- 
ty, the Ormuzd of the Persians, with the chief god of any 
religious system with which he came into contact. He sup- 
poses that Cyrus, finding the Jews to be, like his own nation, 
professors of a religion based upon a sacred volume, and 
finding in that volume a prophecy respecting himself, *'He 
is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure : even say- 
ing to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, 
Thy foundation shall be laid " (Isa. xliv. 28), gladly accepted 
this as a charge, and strengthened himself among his Jewish 
subjects by fulfilling the prophecy, and restoring them to 
their land and their religion. If this view be correct, then 
Cyrus was truly Great^ in that he was the first one to in- 
augurate that system of religious toleration which Alexan- 

[V] 



Notes to Cykus the Great. 

der the Great afterward carried out in his kingdom ; which 
Rome subsequently adopted in the administration of her 
empire ; which the English have maintained in their In- 
dian government; and which has preserved unity and peace 
among the adherents of all the various religious sects in the 
United States. It should be added that the edict of Cyrus 
for the return of the Jews is mentioned only in Scripture ; 
but that their restoration actually took place under his 
reign is not a matter of question by any one. 

P. 225 : The Restoration of the Jews.— li is not easy to trace 
accurately the connection between the narrative of the Per- 
sian domination, as given in secular history, and the narra- 
tive of the same epoch as given in the Bible ; for the proper 
names used to designate the same person are different in 
the secular and in the sacred histories, and the best scholars 
are not agreed in identifying the two. The following table 
exhibits the succession of the Persian kings by their ordi- 
nary Greek names, with the names which most probably cor- 
respond to them in Scripture. I take it from Dr. Smith's 
Old Testament History; ancl although some of these are 
hypothetical, they seem to me, after careful examination, to 
he more probable than those suggested by any other scheme : 

Beginning of each Reign. 

1. Cyaxnres, King of Media b.c. 634 

Ahasuerus, Dau. ix. 1. 

2. Astyages, liis son, last King of Media " 594 

Darius the Mede. 
8. Cyrus, son of his daughter and Cambyses, a Persian 

noble, founder of the Persian Empire '• 559 

Cyrus begins to reign at Babylon Jan. 5, 538 

4. Cambyses, his son '* 3, 529 

Ahasuerus, Ezra iv. 6-16. 

5. Gomates, a Magiau usurper (about Jan. 1), who per- 

sonated Smerdis, the younger son of Cyrus (reigns 

seven months) b.o. 522 

Artaxerxes, Ezra iv. T. 

6. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, a Persian noble, raised 

to the throne on the overthrow of Gomates Jan. 1, 521 

Darius, Ezra iv. 5, 24 ; v. 6. 

7. Xerxes, his son Dec. 23, 4S6 

Ahasuerus, Esther. 

8. Artaxerxes Longimanus, his son Dec. 7, 465 

Artaxerxes, Ezra, vii., Nehemiah, end of reign — Dec. 17, 423 

The restoration begun under Cyrus was not completed un- 
til Darius, owing, probably, to the wars of Cyrus in Asia and 
of his son Cambyses in Egypt, and to the disorders which 
followed upon the usurpation of Gomates. 



[vi] 



l^OTES TO Alexander the Great. 



p. 13 : Alexander'' s Birth. — Alexander was born 356 B.C., at 
Pella, the capital of Macedonia ; according to Plutarcli, on 
the same day that the Temple of Diana at Ephesus was 
burned. One of his eulogists declared that it was no won- 
der that the temple was burned, since Diana was absent, en- 
gaged in bringing Alexander into the world. Plutarch de- 
scribes his complexion as fair, with a tinge of red in his face 
and on his breast. His proper title was Alexander III., 
though generally known as Alexander the Great. 

P. 17 : The ^lacedcniians, — The Macedonians were not pure 
Greeks, and were never so regarded by the Greeks proper. 
Their history prior to 490 B.C. is involved in great obscu- 
rit}'. At that time Macedonia was conquered in the Persian 
invasion by Xerxes, and their king, Alexander I., was com- 
pelled to take part with Xerxes in the invasion of Greece. 
It was first developed into a powerful kingdom under Phil- 
ip, the father of Alexander; and on Alexander's death, with 
the rest of his dominions, was ravaged by civil w^ars, and 
finally became subject to Pome in 197 B.C., and was made a 
Roman province in 146 B.C. This was its condition at the 
time of Paul's visit to it (Acts xvi. 9, 10). It is now a part 
of Turkey in Europe, but no longer as an independent prov- 
ince. 

P. 21: Aristotle. — Aristotle's father, Nicomachus, was a 
special friend of Amyntas, Philip's father, and it is said that 
when Alexander was born Philip sent a letter to Aristotle, 
saying, ^'I am thankful to the gods, not so much for his 
birth as that he was born in your time," and inviting the 
philosopher to take charge of the prince's education. This 
is somewhat mythical, but it illustrates the probable rela- 
tions between the royal and the philosophical families. Ar- 
istotle may be regarded as the founder of the modern scien- 
tific school ; and Plato, his great rival, of the modern meta- 



[vii] 



Alexander the Geeat. 

physical school. Aristotle studied things, Plato thought ; 
Aristotle gathered knowledge from all quarters, Plato medi- 
tated problems the most profound. *' History, the human 
mind, and all departments of nature, "says President Seelye, 
in his admirable though too brief article in '^ Johnson's 
Cyclopedia," *' furnish Aristotle contributions. He has no 
rival in the variety and extent of the facts which he has col- 
lected, and the patient industry of his investigations." He 
seems to have had actual charge of Alexander's education 
from the time when he was thirteen years of age till, in his 
father's absence, he was appointed regent, at the age of sev- 
enteen. For a comprehensive account of Aristotle's life and 
works, and a brief exposition of his philosophy, see Smith's 
** Dictionary of Biography and Mythology," art. Aristotle. 

P. 23: Hanging Garde7is. — For fuller description of the 
Hanging Gardens, see ^' Cyrus the Great," p. 194. 

P. 24: Bucephalus. — The story of Bucephalus is told a little 
differently by Plutarch. According to him, the horse was 
offered for sale to Philip for thirteen talents, about twelve 
thousand dollars. He says that Alexander promised to pay 
the price of the horse if he should fail to manage him. 

P. 32 : Fhilip^s Wife — The lady here referred to was Cleo- 
patra, probably the niece of Attains, though, apparently by 
mistake, called his daughter by some writers. After the 
death of Philip, his first wife, Olympias, killed Cleopatra ; 
some accounts say by hanging, others by boiling her in a 
brazen kettle. 

P. 43: Demosthenes. — Demosthenes was born about 385 
B.C., and died 322 B.C., of poison which he took in exile, 
to avoid being delivered into the hands of his enemies. His 
father died when he was only seven years of age, and the 
major part of his fortune was wasted by his guardians. He 
achieved his success as orator, in spite of a feeble constitu- 
tion and defects in his organs of speech, by the most labori- 
ous and painstaking study. At the age of thirty he was al- 
ready a successful lawyer. The object of his Philippics was 
to arouse his countrymen against the ambitious schemes of 
conquest of Philip of Macedon ; he failed through no fault 
of his, but because of the apathy of the Athenians, and the 
rivalries and jealousies between the Grecian States, which 
prevented their making a common cause against their con- 
querors. Like Cicero, he lived in the days of his country's 
decay ; like Cicero, he endeavored in vain to resist the cor- 
[viii] 



Alexander the Geeat. 

ruption of his age, and restore his country to its old-time 
power and glory; like Cicero, he was exiled, recalled from 
exile, and finally died to escape his personal and political 
enemies. For an excellent account of him and his orations, 
see the volume devoted to "Demosthenes," in the "Ancient 
Classics for English Readers " (J. B. Lippincott & Co.). 

P. 72 : Siege and Destruction of Thebes. — According to the 
best authorities, Alexander left the fate of Thebes to be de- 
termined by his Greek allies, who were inveterate enemies 
of the Thcbans, and, in determining its entire destruction, 
meted out to it what they would have received if the Thebans 
had been victorious. Alexander moderated their wrath by 
the measures of mercy which are described in the text. The 
house of Pindar was left standing in the general demolition 
of the city, which remained without inhabitants for twenty 
years. 

P. 81: Pelion and Ossa. — The attempt of the sons of Aloeus 
to pile Pelion upon Ossa is thus described by Homer, book 
xi., lines 384-397 (Bryant's Translation) : 

"When the twain 
Had seen hut nine years of their life, they stood 
In breadth of frame nine cubits, and in height 
Nine fathoms. They against the living gods 
Threatened to wage upon Olympian height 
Fierce and tumultuous battle, and to fling 
Ossa upon Olympus, and to pile 
Pelion, with all its growth of leafy woods, 
On Ossa, that the heavens might thus be scaled. 
And they, if they liad reached their prime of youth, 
Had made their menace good. The son of Jove 
And amber-haired Latona took their lives 
Ere yet beneath their temples sprang the down 
And covered with its sprouting tufts the chin." 

P. 84 : Greek WoisMp. — The principal ceremony of ancient 
worship, whether public or domestic, was a repast ; the for- 
mer was partaken of in common by all the citizens in honor 
of the protecting divinities. For a graphic account of such 
a scene of worship see Homer's " Odyssey," book iii., Bry- 
ant's edition, line 588, etc. Festive processions were fre- 
quent accom]Daniments of these religious meals. See De Cou- 
lange's "Ancient City," chap. vii. ; Gnhl and Koner's "Life 
of the Greeks and Romans," pp. 281-287. 

P. 85: The Muses. — In the most ancient works we find only 
three Muses, each with her musical instrument ; later, nine 
Muses, possessing both different attributes and different sym- 
[ix] 



Alexander the Great. 

bols. They are as follows : (1) Calliope, the Muse of Epic 
Poetry, with a tablet and stylus, or pen ; (2) Clio, the Muse 
of History, with an open roll of paper or an open chest of 
hooks ; (3) Euterpe, the Muse of Lyric Poetry, with a flute ; 
(4) Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy, with a tragic mask ; (5) 
Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance and Song, with a lyre ; (6) 
Erato, the Muse of the Poetry of Love, also sometimes with 
a lyre ; (7) Polyhymnia, the Muse of Sublime Poetry, usually 
in a pensive attitude ; (8) Urania, the Muse of Astronomy, 
. with a staff pointing to a globe ; (9) Thalia, the Muse of Com- 
edy, with a comic mask, a shex^hcrd's staff, or a wreath of 
ivy. 

P. 89 : Troy. — At the time this book was written, the ques- 
tion whether any such poet as Homer ever lived, whether 
his poems were not legends gathered from various sources, 
whether there was any historical basis for them, and, if so, 
what, were grave ones among classical scholars. 

The researches of Dr. Schliemann and the literary re- 
Gcarches of English Homeric students, prominent among 
whom is Mr. Gladstone, have now established, almost be- 
yond a doubt, that the poems of Homer have a historical 
basis, and are, in the highest and best sense, historical as a 
record of manners and customs, feelings and tastes, princi- 
ples and institutions, that there was a solid nucleus of fact 
in his account of the Trojan war, and that the site of an- 
cient Troy is the spot covered with ruins and now known 
as Hissarlik. Dr. Schliemann's investigations among these 
ruins have thrown great light on the Homeric poems, and 
gone far to afford a demonstration of their historical charac- 
ter. The material for the study of this subject will be found 
in Dr. Schliemann's *'Troy and its Ruins," Mr. Gladstone's 
*' Juventus Mundi," *' Studies on Homer and the Homeric 
Age," and "Times and Place of Homer." See also Smith's 
*' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography," art. Ilium. 

P. 107 : Fhalanx.—?h\\\^ has been sometimes credited with 
inventing the phalanx : it seems, however, to have existed 
prior to his time, though to have been improved and brought 
to its perfection under him. 

P. 119: Climax.— ^oma of the ancient historians attributed 
the successful march through the sea at Climax to the mi- 
raculous interposition of Heaven, which caused the sea to 
retire; but Alexander himself treated the matter lightly, 
simply saying that he marched from Phaselis by the way 

[X] 



Alexander the Great. 

called Climax ; and both Strabo and Plutarch repudiate the 
idea of there having been an}^ miracle. 

P. 147 : Tyre. — Plutarch tells the singular story respecting 
the manner in which the siege of Tyre was brought to its 
termination. Aristander, Alexander's principal soothsayer, 
declared on the very last day of the month that the city 
would certainly be taken that month. Alexander, perceiv- 
ing that he was disconcerted by the ridicule which this 
prophecy brought npon him, and that the faith in his 
prophecies was liable to be greatly weakened in the army, 
decreed that the day should be called the twenty-eighth in- 
stead of the thirtieth, then ordered an assault which was 
conducted with so much vigor as to be successful. 

The destruction of Tyre is one of the most striking of all 
the fulfillments of Old Testament prophecies. It was one 
of the most ancient of the great cities of the East ; its glory 
and its power are graphically described in Ezek. xxvii. 
While yet a great and prosperous city, and apparently im- 
pregnable, its downfall was foretold by the Hebrew prophets 
(Jer. XXV. 22 ; xxvii. 3 ; Joel iii. 4-8 ; Am.os i. 9, 10). These 
prophecies have become literally fulfilled. The fishermen 
dry their nets on the rocks of Tyre, as Ezekiel declared they 
should (Ezek. xxvi. 14) ; its harbor has been filled up with 
its ruins; and even if an honest government and a revived 
commerce should give back prosperity to Palestine, the Avoe 
denounced against Tyre, "Thou shalt be built no more," 
would remain. 

P. 174: The Vmt to Jerusalem. — The story of Alexander's 
visit to Jerusalem is not mentioned in the "Encyclopae- 
dia Britannica," and is discredited in Smith's "Dictionary 
of Biography." It is probably a legend of Jewish inven- 
tion. Josephus places this visit subsequent to the siege of 
Gaza. 

P. 181 : Jupiter Ammo7i. — Ammon, variously spelled Amon, 
Amun, and Amen, was the name of an Ethiopian deity whose 
w^orship extended over Egypt, and finally into Greece and. 
Rom.e : in the latter country he took the double name of 
Jupiter Ammon. His chief temple and oracle in Egypt 
were in Thebes; and the homage which Alexander paid to 
him in the oasis was probably in accordance with his policy 
of ingratiating himself with the priesthood of the various 
countries which he conquered. 

The oasis of Ammonium is about six miles in length, and 

[xi] 



Alexander the Gkeat. 

three in "breadth : the ground is abundantly watered by 
springs, and the high cultivation of the oasis, which still 
sustains a population of about 8000, is attested by the abun- 
dance of its fruits. Ruins of the Temple of Ammon still re- 
main. 

P. 187: Alexandria. — This famous city was built upon a, 
stri]p of land between the sea and a lake ; two main street^',' 
two hundred and forty feet wide, crossing each other at 
right angles in the centre of the city, left a free passage for 
the sea-breezes. The most important of all the public build- 
ings of this city, and the ones which have given it a deserved 
fame in antiquity, were those belonging to the Museum, 
in which was the great library which became the largest 
and most famous in the world, and which contained in 
Cleopatra's time at least four hundred thousand volumes, 
and rendered Alexandria so illustrious that men in every de- 
partment of learning resorted thither for instruction. 

Among the most notable fruits of Alexandrian learning 
was the Greek translation of the Old Testament, generally 
known as the Septuagint, from the legendary account of its 
translation by seventy-two persons selected for the purpose 
under the orders of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about fifty years 
after Alexander's death. 

P. 214 : The Burning of PersepoUs. — That Thais had any- 
thing to do with the burning of Persepolis is very doubtful. 
It rests on the sole authority of one of the least trustworthy 
of the historians of Alexander, and is declared by Smith's 
*' Dictionary " to be, in all probability, a mere fable. The 
destruction by fire in a drunken bout is unquestionable. 
Perhaps the story of Thais was invented to relieve Alexan- 
der's name somewhat from odium. 

P. 251 : Alexander'' s last Campaigns. — The statement in the 
text that Alexander's soldiers refused to cross the Indus 
and go on to the Ganges, is not exactly accurate. They 
crossed the western tributary of the Indus and the central 
tributary of the Indus, and reached the river Ghara, its east- 
ern tributary and the eastern boundary of the Punjaub, but 
refused to go farther east. At the confluence of the Chenab 
and the Ghara Alexander founded a city, giving it his name. 
He then descended to the mouth of the Indus and sailed into 
the Indian Ocean, from which point he returned to Babylon, 
where his death occurred as narrated in the text. 
[xii] 



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sisting of Historical Sketches of Josephine and Maria Lou- 
isa, Louis Philippe, Perdinand of Austria, Nicholas, Isa- 
bella IL, Leopold, Victoria, and Louis Napoleon. By 
John S. C. Abbott. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 



A SUMMER IN SCOTLAND : a Narrative of Ob- 
servations and Adventures made by the Author during a 
Summer spent among the Glens and Highlands in Scot- 
land. By Jacob Abbott. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 



THE ROMANCE OF SPANISH HISTORY. By 

John S. C. Abbott. Illustrated. ]2mo, Cloth, $2 00. 



THE TEACHER. Moral Influences Employed in the 
Instruction and Government of the Young. By Jacob 
Abbott. Illustrated. ]2mo, Cloth, $1 75. 



GENTLE MEASURES IN TRAINING THE 
YOUNG. Gentle Measures in the Management and 
Training of the Young ; or, The Principles on which a 
Firm Parental Authority may be Established and Main- 
tained without Violence or Anger, and the Eight Devel- 
opment of the Moral and Mental Capacities be Promoted 
by IMethods in Harmony with the Structure and the Char- 
acteristics of the Juvenile Mind. A Book for the Parents 
of Young Children. By Jacob Abbott. Illustrated. 
12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 



SCIENCE 
FOR THE YOUNG. 

By JACOB ABBOTT. 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 



HEAT. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

LIGHT. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

WATER AND LAND. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

FORCE. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 



f^vf men enjoy a wider or better earned popularity as a writer 
for the yonug than Jacob Abbott. His series of histories, and sto- 
ries ilhistrative of moral truths, have furnished amusement and in- 
struction to thousands. He has the knack of piquing and gratifying 
curiosity. In the book before ub he shows his happy faculty of im- 
parting useful information through the medium of a pleasant nar- 
rative, keeping alive the interest of the young reader, and fixing in 
his memory valuable irMihs.— Mercury, New Bedford, Mass. 

Jacob Abbott is almost the only writer in the English language 
who knows how to combine real amusement with real instruction 
in such a manner that the eager young readers are quite as much 
interested in the useful knowledge he imparts as in the story which 
he makes so pleasant a medium of instruction. — Buffalo Commercial 
Advertiser. 

* * * Mr. Abbott has avoided the errors so common with writers 
for popular effect, that of slurring over the difficulties of the subject 
through the desire of making it intelligible and attractive to un- 
learned readers. He never tampers with the truth of science, nor 
attempts to dodge the solution of a knotty problem behind a cloud 
of plausible illustrations.— iV. Y. Tribune. 



POPULAR HISTORIES 

BY 

JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 



HISTORY OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

The History of Frederick the Second, called Frederick the 
Great. By John S. C. Abbott. Elegantly Illustrated. 
8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

The French Kevolution of 1789, as Viewed in the Light of 
Republican Institutions. By John S. C. Abbott. With 
100 Engravings. 8yo, Cloth, $5 00. 



NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

The History of Napoleon Bonaparte. By John S. C. Ab- 
bott. With Maps, Woodcuts, and Portraits on SteeL 
2 vols., 8yo, Cloth, $10 00. 



NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA. 

Napoleon at St. Helena ; or, Interesting Anecdotes and Re- 
markable Conversations of the Emperor during the Five 
and a Half Years of his Captivity. Collected from the 
Memorials of Las Casas, O'Meara, Montholon, Antom- 
marchi, and others. By John S. C. Abbott. With Il- 
lustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 



By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 



CHILD AT HOME. 

The Child at Home ; or, the Principles of Filial Duty famiL 
iarly Illustrated. By John S. C. Abbott. Woodcuts. 
16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 

The duties and trials peculiar to the child are explained and il- 
lustrated in this volume in the same clear and attractive manner 
in which those of the mother are set forth in the " Mother at Home." 
These two works may be considered as forming a complete manual 
of filial and maternal relations. 



MOTHER AT HOME. 

The Mother at Home ; or, the Principles of JMaternal Duty 
familiarly Illustrated. By John S. C. Abbott. Engrav* 
ings. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 

This book treats of the important questions of maternal responsi- 
bility and authority ; of the difficulties which the mother will ex- 
perience, the errors to which she is liable, the methods and plans 
she should adopt ; of the religious instruction which she should 
impart, and of the results which she may reasonably hope will fol- 
low her faithful and persevering exertions. These subjects are 
illustrated with the felicity characteristic of all the productions of 
the author. 



PRACTICAL CHRISTIAMTY. 

Practical Christianity. A Treatise specially designed for 
Young Men. By John S. C. Abbott. 16mo, Cloth, 

$L 00. 

It is characterized by the simplicity of style and appositeness of 
illustration which make a book easily read and readily understood. 
It is designed to instruct and interest young men in the effectual 
truths of Christianity. It comes down to their plane of thought, 
and, in a genial, conversational ^vay, strives to lead them to a life 
of godliness.— Watchman and Reflector. 

It abounds iu wise and practical sug 
Advertiser, 



